The Good, the Bad, and the Italian
by pingo1387
Summary: Follow Feliciano Vargas-Edelstein as he experiences the ups and downs of high school. Human!AU, high school. Pairings inside. This will be following Feli's perspective, but will occasionally switch to other characters.
1. The Crash, The Bad News, And The Runaway

**Please note that this fic contains: Germany=HRE theory, GerIta / Chibitalia x Holy Rome, Spamano, HunAus, PruCan, Giripan, FrUK, RoChu, SuFin, and eventual mention of AmeriTai.**

**YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

* * *

The car ride was taking forever. The stoplights, it seemed, believed that red was our favorite color and therefore kept showing it to us whenever we reached one. I sighed a little bit and said, "_Nonno_, how much longer?"

My grandfather twisted in the driver's seat and smiled at me. My parents had died when Lovi and I were young; we had never known them. _Nonno_ had taken care of us ever since they had died. He looked surprisingly young to be a grandfather, with curly brown hair and amber eyes identical to mine and my _fratello_'s. "Well, Feli, that depends on whether these nasty lights will be nice to us or not. Why don't you and Lovino play a game while we're waiting?"

"Mm…"

To tell the truth, I wasn't in much of a mood to play any kind of game. Earlier that year, I had met a boy in one of the other fifth-grade classes. He had blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. We had only known each other for two months, but we had grown very close and even shared some pecks on the cheek. I loved him – he was kind, adorable, and shy. But come to think of it, I never learned his name. Whenever I asked it of him, he just mumbled that he didn't really like his name. No one else seemed to know it either, and if I asked a teacher, they would say that if he didn't want to tell anyone, that was up to him.

Just a few days ago, we were sitting on the monkey bars when he said quietly, "Feli, I've got something to tell you…"

I had looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

"I… I'm transferring schools in two days…"

I felt as though my heart had stopped. "W…" I whispered. "…what?"

"I'm leaving, Feli," he said sadly, looking at me. "I don't want to leave! I don't want to leave you…"

"You can come live with us!" I cried desperately. "With me and _fratello_ and _nonno_—"

"Feli, I can't leave my _brüder _or my _vater_! They're my family! How would you feel if I asked you to leave your _nonno_ or your _fratello_?"

I looked at the ground, tears forming in my eyes. He was right, of course. But that didn't make it any easier.

"I'm really going to miss you…" I whispered.

"I'm going to miss you too, Feli," he said. I leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. There was some laughter from the kids below us, but neither of us cared. We just sat there holding hands until recess was over.

I snapped out of my thoughts to find Lovi poking me in the shoulder. "Oi, Feliciano," he grumbled, "what's wrong? Don't you want to play a game?"

"Not really, Lovi…"

"I told you not to call me that!" He huffed and turned away to look out the window at the darkening sky. Lovi and I may have been identical twins, but we were hardly anything alike in personality. He was pessimistic and I was optimistic; that was all there was to it.

The light finally changed to green and _nonno_ moved forward, checking his watch. As he pressed on the gas pedal and moved past the light, there was a sudden, loud engine noise coming from ahead of us in the next lane over. A car swerved wildly and suddenly into our path.

The headlights blinded us.

So bright.

Blinding.

Crash.

Lovi and I were thrown against the back of the seat cushions. We both were dazed from it for a few minutes. When we recovered, we found the front of our car crumpled like a soda can, a single flickering headlight in front of it, and _nonno_ – slumped over the side of the steering wheel, unmoving, his head in an odd position, the airbag slowly deflating next to him.

"_Nonno_!" We cried. I leaned forward and shook his shoulder. "_Nonno_, wake up! _Nonno_! _Nonno_!"

The next half hour was a blur of black-uniformed men, blue-and-white flashing lights, and sitting quietly in a car. Next thing I remember clearly was sitting in front of a policewoman, who had taken off her hat. She looked kindly at us.

"Hello, boys," she said gently. "Can you tell me your names?"

"Feliciano."

"Lovino."

She smiled and wrote something down. "How old are you both?"

"We're twins," said Lovi. "We're both eleven years old."

She wrote this down too. "Well, my name is Officer Howlett. It's nice to meet you both." Officer Howlett leaned forward in a more business-like manner. "Now, can you tell me who was driving the car you two were in?"

I spoke this time. "It was our _nonno_," I said, "our grandpa."

"Okay. Do you remember where you were going?"

"Um… we were going over to Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein's house for dinner."

"How are you related to them?"

Lovi muttered, "_Nonno_ says they're 'friends of the family'."

Officer Howlett asked us a few more questions before snapping her notepad shut. "Thank you both very much. I'm sure you're wondering about your grandpa. The truth is, he's in the hospital right now. The doctors are taking him to the emergency room, so hopefully he'll be as good as new in no time. We're going to call Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein, so they'll be coming to pick you up and take care of you until you can see grandpa again. Okay?"

"Okay," we said quietly. She smiled encouragingly and brought us to a room filled with books and toys, the kinds designed for children under six. As soon as he left, I started crying.

"F-Feliciano!" exclaimed Lovi. "Don't start crying on me! I'm going to start crying too!" Tears were already forming in his eyes.

"B… but… what if _nonno_ doesn't get better?" I sobbed. "What if he… he…"

Lovi grabbed me in a hug. "Feli, it's okay. _Nonno_'ll get better, got it?"

I nodded, but kept crying into his shoulder.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein came to pick us up in ten minutes. Mrs. Edelstein immediately flew upon my _fratello_ and me and grabbed us in a fierce hug.

"Oh, it's so good to see you," she cried, "but if only it didn't have to be like this!"

Mrs. Edelstein had long, pale brown hair that she occasionally tied back in a handkerchief when cleaning the house. According to some stories she told us, when she was young she had been convinced that she was a boy, despite what her parents had told her. It was only when she was 14 years old that she recognized her gender and switched from slacks and being shirtless to dresses, skirts, and flowery things. She always insisted that Lovi and I call her 'Eliza', her first name.

Mr. Edelstein pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I _do_ hope your grandfather is well soon. Elizabeth, please step away, you're making a scene."

Eliza reluctantly released Lovi and me (Lovi was relieved). Mr. Edelstein was a famous pianist, always practicing for at least three hours a day and giving concerts in churches. His hair was dark, chestnut brown with a funny strand that stuck up above his forehead and bent backwards to make a slight curl. (This was not so different from mine and _fratello's_ hair curls, though ours were on the sides of our heads – his on the right, mine on the left.) He continually wore formal-type suits, even around the house, and was generally strict and orderly. If asked to do something from him, Eliza would do it, sometimes against her own desires. She loved him very much, despite the fact that he seemed to care more about his piano than her.

"Now," continued Mr. Edelstein, "as soon as everything is cleared up at the front, we will be taking you two back to our house. Until we receive word on your grandfather, you will be staying there. Come along."

Lovi and I followed Mr. Edelstein and Eliza through the door and to an officer, who had a short conversation with him before we went to their car. We quietly sat in the back; no words passed between anyone.

When we reached the house, Mr. Edelstein sent us upstairs. "There are two small guest bedrooms. You may each take one after dressing down and brushing your teeth."

Eliza came up with us to show us where the toothbrushes and pajamas were. When she left and turned off the light, I sneaked out the door and over to where Lovi was.

"Lovi," I whispered, coming up to his bed. "Can I sleep with you?"

He hesitated. "Okay… but just this once."

I crawled in and snuggled up next to him, breathing steadily in the comfort of his warm body and familiar feel. I fell asleep very soon.

* * *

Waking up, I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Looking around, I remembered what happened the night before: The crash. _Nonno_. Mr. Edelstein and Mrs. Edelstein.

Lovi was already gone; he must have gotten up and headed downstairs for breakfast already. I rolled sleepily out of bed and shuffled downstairs as well. The Edelsteins' home was gorgeous and well-furnished. There was a chandelier in the music room, a fantastically designed one made almost entirely of glass. It twinkled at me as I moved past that room and into the kitchen.

Mr. Edelstein, Eliza, and Lovi were already at the table, quietly eating pancakes – made by Eliza, of course. They looked up as I entered and Eliza smiled.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she said kindly. Pointing to an empty chair at which a plate of pancakes was in front of, she added, "have a seat and let's get some food into you, okay?"

"Thank you," I said, sliding into the seat. Picking up the syrup bottle and pouring the sticky stuff in a star shape over the flapjacks, I added, "How's _nonno_ doing?"

"Well, honey, we need to get a call from the hospital first. Otherwi—"

The phone rang, startling us all. I dropped my fork with a loud clatter and Mr. Edelstein looked at me.

"Quiet," he ordered. Rising from his place, he moved to the phone and took it off the hook, holding it to his ear.

"Hello, Edelstein residence, Roderich Edelstein speaking," he said as he walked out of the room. I caught a few words from outside: "Yes, they are currently…" "Oh…" "…I'm sorry to…"

After another minute of quiet conversation, he walked slowly into the room, though it seemed very slow. Replacing the phone, he turned to us with an uncharacteristically sad expression.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news. Regulus Vargas has…" he paused and took off his glasses to rub his eyes. "Regulus Vargas has passed away."

It took approximately three seconds for this sentence to sink in. When it did, my _fratello_ and I burst out sobbing. I put my head down on the table and cried, not caring so much that I was lying on the syrupy pancakes. At one point, Eliza gently sat me up, wiped off my face, and carried me to bed like an infant. I must have cried myself to sleep sometime, because when I awoke, I was on my side in the bed with dry tear tracks on my face. I shed a few more tears before quietly walking downstairs to the kitchen. The pancakes now lay cold, sticky syrup smeared across the surface. I took a bite, and then set it down, realizing that I didn't feel like eating much of anything right now. Coming to the living room, I found Eliza, Mr. Edelstein, and _fratello _sitting on chairs in a circle. Lovi's eyes were threatening to release more water, but at the sight of me that water spilled over. I cried a bit more too, and when we had both settled down, Mr. Edelstein cleared his throat.

"First off," he said, "I want to say how sorry I am that Regulus – your grandfather – has passed away. He was a great man, and we should all remember him."

We entertained a brief silence before he continued.

"Now," he said, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "as for what will happen to you two…"

I looked up. I hadn't actually considered this, but now that he brought it up… where would we go? Grandpa was our only surviving family. Our parents had had no siblings, and our grandparents on our mother's side had passed away.

"Your grandfather set it up so that if something were to happen to him, Elizabeth and I would act as godparents. In other words, we will be taking care of you two until you are old enough to live on your own."

I perked up slightly at this. Living with the Edelsteins wouldn't be bad. Of course Mr. Edelstein would be strict, but it would be nice to see Eliza every day. Meanwhile, Lovi didn't look very happy about this. He had never really warmed up to the couple, but now he would have to live with them acting as our parents.

"We will go to your house later today and collect the personal possessions from it. And speaking of possessions, your grandfather Regulus tended to live frugally, he was quite wealthy, and has left you both an inheritance. Elizabeth and I will be keeping that money in the house, per your grandfather's wish to not put it in a bank."

He stopped and I quietly said, "Mr. Edelstein?"

"Now that we are your legal guardians, you will refer to me as 'stepfather' or 'godfather'."

I hesitated. "Um, stepfather? What does 'frugally' mean?"

"It means to live cheaply, to be thrifty, or to generally not spend much money."

"Oh."

* * *

It had now been an entire week of living in the Edelsteins' house, and I was slowly settling in. The funeral had been a few days ago; it was strange to see the box holding _nonno_ being lowered into a hole in the ground. I was just starting to drift off when I felt someone shaking my shoulder. I sat up slowly and rubbed an eye.

"_F… fratello_?" I said sleepily. "What is it? Did you have a bad dream?"

"No," he hissed. "Listen, Feliciano, I'm… I'm going to run away."

At this I sat up suddenly, my eyes wide. "_What_?"

"Ssh! You'll wake them!"

I didn't understand. "_Fratello_, why?"

"Because I can't stand it here! Mr. Edelstein – I'm sorry, _stepfather_ – is way too strict and stiff, and Eliza just ignores me all the time. I can live on my own!"

"B… but Lovi…" I said desperately, "you don't have any money!"

He took out several wads of cash from his pocket. "That's no problem. The place that they kept the money was – get this – a shoebox. I found it under their bed. I guess they were going to get something better soon. Anyway, I counted it all and took exactly half of the money, so I now have my inheritance."

I was having trouble comprehending all of this. "_Fratello_, I love you! I don't want you to leave!"

"But Feliciano, you can come with me if you want to! You can get your money and we can run away together!" He extended a hand. "Will you come with me?"

I hesitated. "N… no, _fratello_! I want to live here, with Eliza and stepfather! I'm sorry!"

His face fell before becoming angry. "Fine. Be like that. I'm leaving now; I've already packed up my stuff." He turned away, and then looked back, now sad. "Goodbye, Feli."

I leapt out of bed and hugged him. He stumbled, but regained his balance and hugged me back. Then he quietly waved and walked out the door. I watched him go and heard the front door open and close.

Creeping back into bed, I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

Getting up the next morning, I reluctantly went down to the kitchen, knowing what was coming. Eliza and stepfather were already there, eating yogurt. I quietly poured myself cereal after greeting them with a tired "Morning."

"Morning, Feli," said Eliza. She was still in a nightgown (as well as stepfather), and her mouse-brown hair was tangled up in itself. "Is Lovi coming down soon, do you know?"

I froze in the middle of pouring milk, snapping myself out of it before the bowl overflowed. "Um, I, um, don't know if he's coming, stepmother. He might still be in bed."

I always called Eliza 'stepmother' in front of stepfather, but it was 'Eliza' when he was out of earshot.

"I'll go wake him," sighed stepfather, rising from his chair and crossing the room to the stairs. Soon we heard him calling down to his wife.

"Elizabeth, do you know where Lovino's gone?"

* * *

Eliza wanted to call the police, but stepfather said that they should talk about it first. After they went into the room and closed the door to talk privately, I put my ear up to the door in order to eavesdrop.

"What do you mean, talk about it?" came Eliza's fierce whisper. "We _have_ to call the cops!"

"Listen, Elizabeth," said stepfather sternly, "he seems to have run away on his own. None of the locks were picked, nothing was broken… and on top of that, all of his clothes and belongings are gone. Not only that, but take a look at this." There was a noise of something being moved, and a gasp from Eliza. Clearly he was showing her the money, or lack of it, in the shoebox.

"He ran away of his own free will, so he obviously does not want to be here. That is his choice, and we are not going to force him to come back if he does not want to. He may return if he wishes, but we will not run after him."

"But Roderich—"

"We are NOT going to run after him!"

At this heated exclamation Eliza gave a sigh. "Yes, dear," she said quietly.

I backed away from the door and tiptoed to my room. I was able to hold myself back for about ten seconds to close the door before I threw myself on the bed and cried into my pillow.


	2. The School, The Friends, And The Pasta

I woke up and immediately wanted to go back to bed and stay there all day. I was just so nervous; today was the day I would start high school, and I didn't know if I was ready.

Eliza came into the room and smiled. "Feli, honey, you have to get up now. You're going to be late."

"I… I'm nervous, Eliza," I confessed. "I don't wanna go."

"Oh, Feli, don't worry. You'll do just fine; you'll make lots of friends and do well in your classes, I just know it. Now c'mon and get dressed so you can eat something before you leave, okay? I'm making scrambled eggs on toast."

I reluctantly got out of bed and put on my school uniform. It was a light blue sweater (the school had supplied T-shirts for warmer days) with dark blue plaid pants. I quickly combed my hair and hurried downstairs, where, true to Eliza's words, a plate of steaming eggs on a piece of cooked bread waited. Eliza and stepfather were eating already, so I sat down and ate my breakfast – even though I was nervous, I managed to get down the entire thing. The orange juice Eliza had set out was drunk quickly, and I grabbed my school bag.

"Goodbye, stepmother," I said, pecking Eliza on the cheek. "Goodbye, stepfather," I added, nodding to him. He looked up, gave a brief dip of the head, and looked back at his newspaper.

"Do you want me to walk with you, Feli?" Eliza offered. I shook my head.

"No, I know the way. I'll be careful crossing the street."

"Okay, dear. Have fun!"

I waved and stepped out the door. The sky was just starting to light up, and with the streetlights, I could see my way just fine. It only took me ten minutes to get to my new school.

The school itself was big, with several separate buildings labeled with numbers – one building had numbers outside of the classrooms such as '101', '121', and '123', and another had numbers like '910', '908', and '901'. They must have been organized with the first numbers. It looked like the school had an outdoor campus. I was not looking forward to when it rained.

I checked my schedule and started walking around to the different classrooms, trying to find the best ways to get there. I had only reached my fourth class when the bell rang. Almost dropping my schedule, I hurried back to my first class of the day – German I. I thought of taking this class as a sort of tribute to my first crush – I remembered him saying that his family was German, as well as him using some German words like _vater _and _brüder_. If I ever saw him again, I could use his family's language to impress him…

Shaking myself out of my memory-induced stillness, I opened the door and walked in. The room was plastered with posters of places in Germany, German words, German advertisements, and maps of the country itself. The desks were arranged in a rough U-shape, the open end facing the front of the room. I slid into a seat, setting my backpack down between my feet. The bell rang again, signaling the start of class.

* * *

"…and there is no homework tonight," added the teacher, Mr. Henson, as the ending bell rang. I followed the flow of students out the door and into the cool morning air. The sun was finally visible in the sky, lighting up the trees and ivy adorning the grounds.

My next class was biology, which I was very nervous about. I'd heard that in such a class, students had to dissect frogs or worms. Shuddering, I stepped through the door. The room had safety posters on the walls, an eye wash and shower station with a yellow curtain, and several tables jutting out from the surrounding counters for experiments. I slid into my seat, the last available one on a table of four – the other three kids consisted of one with blond hair and emerald eyes, another with shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes, and one with rectangular glasses, indigo eyes, and slightly shaggy straw-blond hair with one hair making a loop downwards from his forehead.

"Hi!" I said cheerfully. "My name's Feliciano, but you can call me Feli!"

The one that I was sitting next to, the one with blond hair and blue eyes, smiled. "_Salut_, Feli. My name is Francis."

The blond with green eyes, sitting across from Francis, cleared his throat. "Hello, I'm Arthur Kirkland." Gesturing to the one next to him, he said, "This is my cousin… um…"

Arthur's cousin sighed. "Arthur, my name's Matthew. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Yes, I knew that, Matthew."

I opened my mouth to say something else, but the bell rang. The teacher introduced himself (once everyone quieted down) as Ms. Farrand, and the first thing he said to us was that, contrary to popular belief, we would _not_ be dissecting anything this year. I sighed with relief.

* * *

Lunchtime for me finally came around after fourth period. I had first lunch every day, it seemed, so I was quite happy about eating fairly early every day. Hurrying into the cafeteria, I looked up and saw that the ceiling had many flags hanging down in rows, back to back, of every country. There was America, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Ireland, North Korea (which, for some reason, was placed next to America's flag), Norway, Russia…

I looked down and hurried into the line for pasta. Eliza had said that she didn't want me buying lunch often, maybe just once every other week, but since today was the first day she gave me some money for the cafeteria food.

The line was super long, but I finally bought a bowl of spaghetti and milk. I nervously walked across the cafeteria, scanning the tables for an empty spot. Eventually I spotted a few spots, next to two people sitting across from each other. One had wavy brown hair and light eyes (from this distance I couldn't tell what color they were), and the other boy—

The other boy had chestnut hair that shone in the fluorescent lights above, as well as a—a single strand of hair that curled into a spiral on the right side of his head. I almost dropped my spaghetti.

It was Lovi.

"Lovi," I whispered to myself. My face broke into a disbelieving grin and I ran towards him, probably setting a new record for running to someone in a crowded cafeteria while holding a spaghetti bowl and a small carton of milk.

"Lovi!" I cried as I reached him. He turned around right as I flung my arms around him, letting the food and drink drop to the table. I hugged him tightly and started to cry.

"Lovi I missed you so much I'm sorry I didn't go with you when you ran away and what are you doing here how are you doing oh my God oh my God Loviiiiiiii—"

He started squirming in my embrace. "F-Feliciano! Is that you!? Get off, I can't breathe!"

I eventually released him and sat next to him, only to start hugging again. "Lovi, I missed you so much!"

He awkwardly hugged me back. "I missed you too, Feli…" He pulled back and smiled a little bit.

The boy sitting across from him smiled. "Well, Lovi, aren't you going to introduce me?" he had a light Spanish accent, and I could now see that his eyes were green.

Lovi glared at him. "I told you not to call me 'Lovi', you bastard!"

Antonio tilted his head. "…you can call me 'Toni', if you want."

"That's not the issue!" turning back to me, he said, "Feliciano, this is Antonio Carriedo—"

"Fernandéz."

Lovi glared again and said, "Antonio _Fernandéz _Carriedo."

"Can I call you 'Toni'?" I asked happily.

"_Si_, _si_!"

"Okay, Toni!" I turned back to Lovi and asked, "so what happened when you ran away?"

Lovi sighed. "This is gonna be a kind of long story, Feliciano." He took a breath and began talking.

* * *

**Ooh, what happened? Find out next chapter!**


	3. The Story, The Nicknames, And The Hug

**I am so so so so (X50) sorry for the late update! X(**

* * *

"After I ran away, I lived on the streets for a few weeks, using the money to buy food if I needed it. It was pretty hard – I usually slept in old cardboard boxes, and I cried a lot for the first few days. I missed you, Feliciano, but I didn't want to go back to that house…

"Well, then I met Antonio."

Lovi gestured towards Toni, who smiled and continued the story.

"It's kind of funny, actually; we were in very similar situations. My story was that my dad was an old drunkard who'd abuse me pretty often, so one day (I was twelve at the time) I got sick and tired of it. I stole several hundred dollars from him, yelled that I was leaving, grabbed some clothes, stuffed them in a box, and went out the door. I was living on the streets, too, until I met Lovi here."

"Don't call me Lovi."

"Lovi and I figured that we could team up and pool our money to get a cheap apartment, maybe have some shelter over our heads. We finally found one that only cost $300 a month – the lady didn't ask questions. I guess she just cared if we had money. The room actually had a refrigerator and a bed and a bathroom already in it, so that was pretty good."

Toni nodded at Lovi to take over. He sighed and picked up the story.

"The tomato bastard and I—"

"Tomato bastard?" I interrupted.

"That's what I call him!"

"But you like tomatoes, Lovi…"

"That's not the point, Feliciano. Anyway, the tomato bastard and I had a really good amount of money from the start, but, you know, we were going to run out eventually. So once Antonio was sixteen, he got a part-time job working at that burger place a couple blocks away from our apartment… and now we're both here, since we can get way better jobs later in life with a high school diploma."

Antonio smiled (it seemed like he always smiled). "Lovi's really good at forging signatures. We got some cheap school supplies, and here we are."

I listened to this story in fascination. "Wow… it must have been really hard at first for you guys!"

"_Si_, but we handled it."

I glanced at the clock and realized that we only had ten minutes left in lunchtime. Pointing this out to Toni and Lovi, we finished our food in a hurry; everything was gone in just over five minutes.

"Oh!" I turned to Lovi. "Lovi, can I tell Eliza and stepfather that you're okay and you're here? I'm sure Eliza would be really happy to hear—"

"No, you can't."

"Eh?" I frowned. "Why not?"

"Because they'll just make me live with them again! Sure, it'd be nice to live with you again, Feliciano, but I really detest that piano bastard!"

He went quiet for a moment, then turned back to me. "Tell me the truth, Feliciano… did they even try to look for me when I ran away?"

I hesitated.

"Tell me." His eyes looked almost pleading.

"Eliza… she really wanted to look for you and call the police, but stepfather said no. He said that if you ran away, then that meant that you didn't want to live there, and so they wouldn't make you come back…"

He sighed and looked down. "Okay." His fists were slightly clenched on his lap and the liquid in his eyes threatened to spill over. I leaned over and hugged him. This time he didn't protest.

When I pulled back, he muttered "I guess you can tell Eliza, but make sure she knows that I'm not coming back there."

"_Si_, Lovi!" I said happily.

The bell rang. We said our farewells and went off to our classes.

* * *

**Also, sorry for the short chappie :(**


	4. The German, The Cross, And The Painting

**Heeey everyone! I'm sorry that this note isn't an actual update, but it's rather important. You see, my computer's down, so I won't be able to type any new chapters for a while. **

**We're getting a new computer, but I don't know how soon it'll be set up, so I can't say how long I'll be gone.**

**So I'm sorry, but no new updates for... at least a week, I guess.**

**Happy holidays!**

* * *

Finally, my last class of the day: Painting. I enjoyed painting very much, and it would be nice to be able to spend time at school doing what I loved.

The desks in the room were arranged in a rough circle facing inwards. There were a few places open; I picked one close to the door. Setting my stuff down, I glanced at my neighbor. He was taller than me by at least five or six inches, with slicked-back blond hair and bright blue eyes. I felt slightly intimidated until he glanced over and offered me a smile.

"Ah, _hallo_," he greeted.

"_Ciao_!" I said cheerfully. "What's your name? Mine's Feliciano!"

He looked a bit startled, but relaxed a moment later. "My name's…" Hesitate. "My name is Ludwig. It's nice to meet you, Feliciano." He held out his hand. I was confused before I realized that he intended to shake my hand. I grabbed it with both hands and shook it hard.

"Nice to meet you, Ludwig!" I said happily. Come to think of it, he was in my previous class, Geometry, as well; but we were seated too far apart to chat. The bell rang and we turned towards the front, where the teacher was starting to talk. His name was Mr. Baker, and he said that we would start out the first month of the class by painting whatever we wanted. Naturally, I was very happy about this. I looked around for inspiration before turning to Ludwig and saying "Can I paint you?"

He looked at me. "Excuse me?"

"Is it okay if I paint a picture of you?"

His cheeks turned pink. "Um, well, I suppose so, but you know, I'm going to be moving my head a bit… I mean, I'm going to be painting as well."

"Why don't you paint me?" I suggested. "We can take turns! I'll look at you, and when I look back at the canvas, you can look at me, and then when you turn away, I'll look at you again!"

Ludwig thought about it. "That doesn't sound too bad… but I must warn you, my painting skills are less than average."

"Oh, that's okay!"

We began painting each other through the method I'd suggested, which worked out quite well. Although Ludwig was a little bit shy around strangers (or, that was the impression I got), he seemed to be quite confident when it came to other matters – for example, it looked like he would do very well in a gym class, or science. For this reason, I chose bright reds and oranges for the background, partially to complement his blond hair, and instead of his school uniform, I painted him in a dark green military outfit, with… a dark green military outfit with…

I turned to him, covering up my unfinished painting. He looked at me for reference and saw me waiting.

"Do you have something that you like to wear?" I asked. "Like, um… do you have some kind of access—accesso—"

"Accessory?" he prompted.

"Yeah, accessory! Do you have something like that?"

He thought for a moment. "Well… I do have this." Reaching into the collar of his uniform, he pulled out a necklace. At the end of the chain was a black cross, outlined with white and slightly curved on the insides. "This is a family emblem… sort of. My _brüder_ has one as well, and my _vati_."

I hesitated. "Are… are you German?"

"_Ja_."

I shook my head in amazement. That was just like… no, it couldn't be. I thanked him and turned back to the painting, adding in the black-and-white cross at the collar of the outfit.

The teacher warned us that there were five minutes to the bell, and if we didn't want to get out late, then we'd better start cleaning up. I put the finishing touch on my painting (my signature) and showed it to Ludwig. He stared at it in silence for at least ten seconds.

"It's no good, isn't it?" I said sadly.

He shook his head quickly. "No, no! It's amazing!" Gingerly taking the still-drying piece from me, he examined the portrait of himself, with the dark green outfit, blond hair, red-and-orange background, and bright blue eyes. "This is… fantastic!"

I giggled. "Aw, thanks! May I see yours?"

He looked ashamed.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that… mine is trash compared to your masterpiece."

I waved off the praise. "Oh, that's no masterpiece! Please, let me see yours!"

He reluctantly turned his painting around. You could definitely tell that the painting was supposed to be of me, but there was something about the eyes that just… didn't look quite right. My strange hair, the one that curled to the left side of my head, was painted a little bit crooked. The background was a light blue color, which looked good with my hair.

"It's good!" I exclaimed. He looked relieved. I opened my mouth to say more, but the bell rang, and he quickly asked if he could take the painting home.

"Only if you let me take home yours!"

He shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."

And that was how I became friends with Ludwig.


	5. The Snack, The Call, And The Plans

I opened the front door and set my bag down by the shoe-rack, calling out "_Ciao_! I'm home!" as I did so. Eliza came around the corner with a smile on her face.

"Hello, Feli!" she greeted happily. "Here, come into the kitchen for a snack."

I followed her into the kitchen, where a small plate of crackers and cheese awaited. I thanked her for the food and started eating. She sat down across from me.

"So, how was your first day of high school?"

I set down my cracker. "It was really fun! I made some new friends and I like all of my classes! Well… except for math. Math's boring. Oh, um, and…" I hesitated.

She looked at me curiously. "What is it, Feli?"

"Um, first, is stepfather here?"

"He told you yesterday that he would be going away for a week, remember? For one of his music things?"

"Oh, yeah! Anyway, Eliza…" I cleared my throat. "Lovi's attending the high school, too. I saw him at lunch time."

Eliza had been eating the crackers and cheese along with me, but at this proclamation, she dropped her cracker in shock and stared at me with her mouth open.

I hurried on. "He says that he's doing fine, and he's living in a cheap apartment…"

She found her voice. "That's… excellent! I'm so glad he's okay…" Eliza let out a shaky breath and smiled. "I'm so glad he's okay…" she repeated. "I was so worried when he ran away. Now he can come back, and—"

"No," I said quickly. She looked at me expectantly.

"Sorry," I continued, "I didn't mean to interrupt. Um, the thing is, Lovi said that he doesn't want to come back. He said that he misses you, but he doesn't regret running away."

She looked down in disappointment. "I see." It looked like she was about to cry, so I leaned over and hugged her comfortingly. I'd always been good at comforting people. When she gently pushed me away, she asked if she could see Lovi at his place sometime.

I thought about it. "Well, I don't really know where it actually is, but I can ask him about it. What about him coming here?"

She smiled. "Feli, your brother is always welcome." Then she looked around conspiratorially and whispered, "As long as your stepfather's not here," with a wink.

I headed up to my room – and then I immediately ran back downstairs, because I had forgotten my backpack. When I came back up, I took out the plastic bag and took it off carefully. Some of the paint had come off on the bag, but it wasn't too noticeable. I held it and carried it around to different places on my walls, checking to see where it would look best. I eventually settled on the wall behind my bed, approximately halfway in between either bedpost. The painting of Ludwig ended up a little bit crooked, but I didn't mind too much. I'd just fix it later…

* * *

Later that evening, Eliza and I were eating dinner (home-made pasta) when the phone rang. I offered to get it and rose to take the phone off of the base.

"Hello!" I said cheerfully. "This is Feliciano Vargas-Edelstein! May I help you?"

"Hi, Feli~! How are you?"

I heard a voice in the background yell "Give me back the phone, you bastard!"

"Toni? Is that you?"

"_Si_, Feli!"

"I'm fine, Toni! How are you?"

"I'm grea — gack!" I heard some indistinct shouting, a sound like someone was being choked, and a loud thump.

"…Toni?"

A new voice came on the phone. "Hey, _fratello_. Sorry 'bout that, this bastard took the phone from me."

I smiled. "It's Lovi," I whispered to Eliza. "Hi, Lovi!"

"…don't call me that. Hi, Feliciano. I just wanted to say hi and ask if you'd told Eliza about me yet."

I nodded, then remembered that he couldn't see me. "Yes, I told her," I said. "She's sitting right here. Do you wanna talk to her?"

"…yes."

I handed the phone to Eliza, saying as I did so "He wants to talk to you."

She took the phone and started talking with a smile on her face. "Yes, it's me… I've missed you too… I'm sorry that we couldn't give you a proper home… of course! When? ... This weekend? Yes, absolutely! ...Er, sorry, who did you say? … Ah. Yes, of course he can come! … Okay, I'm giving it back to Feli now. Goodbye!"

She handed the phone back to me, wiping her eyes a little with one hand. I took it back and talked to Lovi a little bit more – he'd asked Eliza about coming over for dinner on Saturday. Stepfather would still be gone then, so it was okay. I said goodbye and put the phone back on the base before sitting down again with Eliza to finish our dinner.

* * *

**I apologize:**

**1) for this being late**

**2) if you found this chapter boring**


	6. The Albino, The Tears, And The Comfort

**Whoo, chapter's finally finished! Now I've got many others to catch up on, including my other stories... :|**

* * *

_One and a half months later_

I quietly did my worksheet on cells in science class, thinking about the Saturday that Lovi and Toni had come over. Eliza had cried upon seeing him again, and he even hugged her back when she fell upon him. She'd talked almost endlessly, asking him many questions. She'd also warmed up to Toni, though Lovi had seemed annoyed by it. Eliza seemed much happier these days, humming while she did chores around the house.

I looked up at my friends, who were also quietly working. Arthur's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, giving them the look of a huge, black, hairy caterpillar. Francis glanced up, saw me looking, and smiled. I smiled back and turned to see what Arthur's cousin was doing, but…

How odd… he wasn't there. Wasn't he usually here? Hm, was he here earlier… or has he just not shown up for class at all? Oh well, he was probably just absent for some reason. I decided to go back to work and not worry about…

…what was his name again?

* * *

I sat behind the gym with my knees pulled up to my chest and tears forming in my eyes behind my glasses. It's not like anyone would notice that I was missing from science class, or even care. No one noticed me anyway. I was a good student; I always turned in my homework on time, I had never missed a day of school, and my report card held not a single letter grade below a B. I considered myself to be polite and kind, too. But despite all of this, no one was my friend… except for my brother, but he only talked to me at home. I didn't even have any enemies. The gaggle of people who usually harassed the sophomores seemed to look right through me, as if I were made of cellophane.

Although I was to be sixteen in just under a year, my chin and cheeks remained stubble-free, eliminating the need to shave. But Dad always kept a razor by his sink, the old-fashioned, straight-blade kind. I'd do it tonight, I decided. What did it matter? After all, no one would miss me.

I suddenly heard footsteps approaching, so I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked up, expecting to see a teacher coming to herd me back to class. Instead of an administrator, however, I was shocked to see Gilbert Beilschmidt strolling towards me, grinning and waving. He was one of those kids that preferred to sit in the back of the class, and seemed annoyed when he had to sit up front. A self-declared 'awesomely-badass man', he consistently mocked the teachers and cut class. Rather than the standard school uniform, he often dressed in almost all black and white, which actually set off his red eyes and silver hair quite nicely. His family, or so I was told by my brother, had German ties, but he always claimed to be of Prussian descent – as I overheard him saying one day to Francis, 'Prussia may be off the map, but it's still the awesomest country ever!'

"Oi, Matthew!" He called. "Thought I'd find you out here. Why're you cuttin' class?"

For a moment I was too shocked to speak, shocked that someone had actually noticed that I wasn't in class—or even knew my name. I recovered and responded with an angry "What do _you_ care?"

"Whoa, harsh much?" he snickered, stopping in front of me. He extended a hand. "C'mon, I know a better place."

I hesitated before taking his hand.

* * *

We climbed up to the gym roof via a ladder Gilbert had pulled out from behind a Dumpster. The two of us now lay on our backs, staring up at the cloudy October sky. Eventually he spoke:

"So why were you skipping class, Matthew?"

"Well—wait, did _you_ cut class to find me?"

"Yeah. I noticed you were missing, so I asked teach if I could see the nurse. She was like 'Why?' so I explained quite seriously that I had a mysterious tingling sensation in my anus. She didn't believe me for some reason and dragged me to the office. I escaped while they weren't looking… and here I am."

I listened with some amusement and confusion. "But… why would you do all that just to look for me?"

"Well, it's not like I don't notice that you're always in class. You missed it today, and I_ know_ I saw you earlier, so I wondered what was up." He glanced over. "C'mon, what's wrong?"

I started to tell him, but along with the words came tears. I cried as I explained how I was constantly ignored – and I don't know _what_ made me tell him everything. I didn't even know him!

But I kept talking, and he listened quietly. My head was down the entire time between my knees, so I couldn't see his expression.

When I concluded with "…but it's not like _you _would care about any of this," I finally wiped my last tear away and looked at Gilbert. He was sitting up and staring at me with—shock? Disgust? Kindness? Mocking? I didn't know.

Whatever it was, the next thing I knew, he was leaning over and pulling me into a hug. My eyes widened and I was at a loss for words.

"Matthew," he said, speaking next to my right ear now, "Matt. Mattie. Whatever you want to be called. Listen to me. Don't you _ever_ think that no one cares. _I've_ seen you in class – you're nice, you're a perfect student, and you're pretty much awesome. Not to mention the fact that you're pretty cute, too…"

I opened my mouth, intending to deny this accusation, but he was already plowing on.

"…might not be the best at comforting people, but you know what I mean, don't you? You've got a lot of great stuff going for you, and anyone who doesn't pay enough attention to you is a dick or a nar – a nars… a serious egomaniac." He sort of patted me on the back and released me finally. I looked at him, unable to speak.

"…well, this is awkward." He put his hands on his hips and looked at me with a grin. "I have no fucking idea what to say."

I managed a weak chuckle. "I… I never thought that anyone paid any attention to me. I can't believe that you did."

"Yeah, well, you know, I'm just awesome that way."

I heard something hit the roof. Looking up, I saw that the clouds had darkened and were starting to empty their contents onto our heads.

"What're you waiting for!? Come on!"

Looking over, I saw that Gilbert was already descending the ladder. I followed him down and ran after him in the October rain. "Where are we going!?" I yelled.

"Who the hell knows!? Shelter sounds good, though!"

I laughed along with him, and cried while I was laughing. And that was how I reached the big pine tree, with tear stains down my cheeks and weak chuckles coming out of my mouth.

I guess I'd be cancelling those plans for tonight. It looked like someone cared after all.

* * *

**I'm really unsatisfied as to how this whole thing with Mattie turned out, but I don't have time to make it better at the moment. I apologize if you found it unsatisfactory as I did :(**


	7. The Name, The Brit, And The Curiosity

**From Francis' perspective.**

* * *

I stared off, letting my mind wander from what Ms. Farrand, the biology teacher, was saying. I was semi-aware of Feli doodling on his paper, while Arthur and Matthew were looking at the front of the classroom, presumably paying attention to the teacher.

And speaking of Matthew...

* * *

_Francis headed to the buses, thinking of reaching home and reading the book he'd started yesterday. Before he reached his bus, however, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he found his friend Gilbert standing behind him, looking uncharacteristically stern._

_"What is it, Gilbert?"_

_Gilbert brought someone standing behind him forward – Arthur's cousin, the one who sat with Francis, Arthur, and Feli in biology. "What's his name?"_

_"…pardon?"_

_"Tell me his name." Gilbert gestured towards Arthur's cousin, who was looking exceedingly uncomfortable. _

_"Gil, you don't have to—"_

_"Yes, I do. Francis, answer me!"_

_Francis hesitated. "Er… Mark? No, Melvin?"_

_Gilbert smacked his shoulder._

_"What!?"_

_"His _name_," said Gilbert angrily, "is _Matthew_. Say it with me: Mat… thew."_

_"Ah, yes. Sorry, Matthew."_

_"Stop forgetting his name!"_

_"What?"_

_"Stop forgetting his name. How would you like it if everyone forgot your name all the time? What if everyone just started calling you Fred or Finn or (god forbid) Fitzgerald?"_

_"I wouldn't like that, but—"_

_"But _nothing_! You'd better start remembering his name, Francis! Now say it!"_

_"Um… Matthew…"_

_"Say it again!"_

_"M-Matthew!" Francis had never seen Gilbert like this. He seemed genuinely angry._

_"One more time!"_

_"MATTHEW!"_

_"And don't you forget it. C'mon, Matt, we've got a bus to catch." He and Matthew went towards their bus, Matthew quietly protesting that Gilbert really didn't have to do that._

* * *

I'd just finished replaying yesterday's events in my mind when I realized that Ms. Farrand was passing out our homework for tonight and that Arthur was frowning at me. I frowned back. "Yes?"

"You were staring at me."

"Was I? I thought that I was just staring into empty space…"

He glared, and I realized the implications of what I'd just said. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean…"

Too late. He turned away with a huff and took the homework papers, distributing them amongst the four of us. I sighed and took the paper, studying the questions and diagrams. It didn't look too bad.

I wrote my name at the top and looked back at Arthur. He was looking quite serious, bent over his paper with pencil in hand. He scratched the top of his pale blond head and wrote something down for the first answer. Reading it upside-down, I saw that for the question of '_How does DNA, using only four subunits, carry so much diverse information?'_ he'd written down '_Magic_'. I disguised my laughter with coughing and turned to my paper, soon realizing that I didn't know the answer to that question any more than he did.

Looking back up at Arthur, I noticed that he was staring at the window, or perhaps outside the window, with a goofy smile on his face. He seemed to be mouthing something to someone outside, but when I glanced over, I saw no one. I looked back at him and muttered, "Oi, Arthur. What are you doing?"

He looked at me, the smile vanishing. "That is none of your business."

"I was just wondering whom you were talking to."

"And as I just said, it's no business of yours. Now if you'll excuse me…" he started working on his homework again. I wrote down something, and then glanced back up at Arthur. He was looking out the window again, mouthing something, nodding, and smiling. Once again, when I glanced outside, there was no one there.

* * *

After class, I cornered Arthur as he was gathering up his things. He looked at me, annoyed. Clearly I had left a bad first impression on him.

"Yes?" he demanded. "What is it now?"

"Look, I just want to know whom you were talking to outside. I didn't see anyone there."

He sighed. "If you _must_ pry into my business, I was talking to my friend Sage."

"…and where was Sage at the time?"

"She was outside the window, of course. Look, most people can't see her, or my other friends."

"So what you're saying is…" I raised an eyebrow. "You have imaginary friends."

He slammed his biology book down on the table, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and stormed out of the classroom.

"Jeez," I muttered, "what's with him? Was it something I said?"

* * *

**Whenever I don't know the answer to something in biology, I just put down 'magic' ^^**


	8. The Wall-Smash, The Turtle, And The Curl

Coming home from school at last, I used the key to unlock the apartment door and let it creak open as I walked through. Shutting it behind me and hanging the key on the hooks, I turned towards the mostly one-room place. At least, it _looked_ like no one broke in – not that there was much to steal. There was the dark green couch against the wall that Antonio and I'd bought at a garage sale for fifty bucks (it had a stain on it, but we didn't mind); the single bed in the left corner (the corner closest to the window) upon which we took turns sleeping on at night (one would sleep in the bed, the other on the couch), as well as the alarm clock on the floor next to it; the four-burner gas stove that we'd hooked up to the open pipes; the small dishwasher next to the stove; the counter above both, which held a rack of paper towels; the cupboard next to the fridge for storing shelf foods and utensils, pots & pans, plates, etc.; the small oven; the dresser that Antonio and I used to store clothes (which we sometimes had to share); the sacks in the corner, saved from grocery shopping trips, which we now used to store used clothes to take down to the apartment laundry room; two bicycles and two locks leaning against the main door wall, which we used for grocery shopping; and the door leading to the small bathroom, which contained a sink, a toilet, and a shower.

I sighed, hung my backpack on the hooks, kicked off my shoes, and went over to the bed. Getting down on my knees, I reached underneath and pulled out a medium-size box. Opening it, I counted out the money that Antonio and I had. Good… it was all still here. I closed the lid and shoved it back underneath the bed. My stomach rumbled, and though no one was around, I felt myself blush. Too bad I couldn't have a snack – we tried to save all of our groceries for meals.

Walking back over to the door, I rummaged around in my backpack, pulled out my science homework, and got to work. Ugh, I wish I'd finished this at school instead of procrastinating. At least Antonio wouldn't be home until six, so I had the place to myself until then. Sitting on the floor and setting the paper in front of me, I stared at the questions in frustration. Biology – actually, science in general – was not my _forza_.

I finished the work in about an hour, which was a new record for me. Gathering up my things, I went over to the door to put them back in my backpa—

The door flew open, slamming me back into the wall and crushing my nose. "_¡Hola!_ I'm back—oh? Is there something behind the door?"

My eyes were closed in pain at this point, but I heard him come around and say "Lovi! What are you doing behind the door?"

I opened my eyes and glared at him. "You fucking _idiot_! You slammed the fucking door into my fucking nose! It's probably broken, bastard!"

He gasped. "Oh no, Lovi! Come on; let's put some ice on it!"

Antonio made me lay down on the couch while he got some ice from the icemaker in the fridge. After wrapping the cubes in a towel, he placed it on my face. I held it there and looked at him. He looked relieved now that the damage was being treated. I noticed that he wasn't wearing his work uniform, but his normal school clothes.

"First off, don't bother apologizing," I said before he could open his mouth, "because you gave me the ice. So you don't apologize and I don't thank you. Okay? Now would you _please_ tell me why you're here early? You didn't skip work, right?"

"No, no!" he vehemently denied. "Business was really slow today, so boss let me off early!"

"With full pay, right?"

"Yes, of course~!"

"Good." The pain in my nose was lessening, so I took the bag off and let it breathe. Swinging my legs over the side, I got up and muttered "I'm going to do my homework. Hey, shouldn't you do yours?"

Antonio grinned. "Nah, I'll put it off for now!"

I sighed. "Whatever."

Getting out my geometry homework (and putting away the science paper, which I'd dropped upon being slammed into by the door), I grabbed my pencil, book, and protractor before going back to the floor.

Oh boy, this first problem was tough. What was the formula again… c'mon, concentrate… yes! That was it! Okay, don't forget it… solve the problem… concentrate… _concentrate_…

"A turtle."

I looked up, concentration broken. "What was that, tomato bastard?"

Antonio looked over. He was lying on the old couch.

"A turtle," he repeated. "Let's get a pet turtle."

"_Excuse _me?" I set down my pencil, feeling a vein in my forehead twitch. "A _turtle_? Why the _hell_ do you want a pet turtle?"

"Well…" he grinned. "Turtles are so cute! I bet I could train it to jump through hoops!"

I gritted my teeth. For someone nearly a whole year older than me, Antonio was surprisingly stupid. "No. We are _not getting a fucking turtle_."

"Mm, you're right. We shouldn't just get _a_ turtle… we should get at least four or five, so that they won't be lonely…"

I stared at him from my spot. "Listen, tomato bastard, we're not getting _any_ turtles! We can barely afford to live here as it is, what with the rent and paying for the gas and water and groceries! That job of yours brings in some money, sure, but not enough so that we can risk buying luxuries! I mean, come on, we haven't even bought another bed!"

"Turtles aren't luxuries!" He protested. "They're cute!"

"Fuck that! We're not getting any pets! Even if we did, we'd have to pay for food, too!"

He sighed and turned away, but I had the feeling that this turtle business was going to come up again sooner or later.

"Oh, and speaking of a bed," I added, "I've been thinking: How about we get another bed when I get a job? I looked it up today—" (the only internet access that we had was at the school library, and that severely limited our website access, as many were banned by the server) "—and there's an IKEA about five miles away from here. We could bike there."

He looked back over and smiled. "That sounds good. But the turtles come first."

"A BED COMES FIRST."

"…you're no fun, Lovi."

"Don't call me – oh, never mind."

I went back to the homework, trying to remember the forgotten formula.

I dished out the canned tomato soup, splitting it as evenly as I could into two bowls. I put a spoon in each of them and turned around, carrying the bowls towards Antonio, who was finishing his homework. "Soup's on, bastard."

He looked up, looked into the bowls, and smiled. "Oh, tomato soup! _¡Delicioso!_"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just eat it already." I sat next to him on the couch and we ate our meager dinner in silence. Once finished, we put the bowls into the dishwasher. Antonio looked at me brightly.

"So, Lovi, what do you want to do for the rest of the night?"

"Don't call me Lovi," I responded automatically. "I'm going to take a quick shower. We'll do something when I'm out."

* * *

I came out of the shower with a towel around my waist. Antonio was sitting on the couch, watching me walk towards the dresser to get boxers. I scowled. "What?"

"Mm, I just never noticed before now how nice you look when you're naked."

The towel nearly slipped from my waist. I felt myself blush. "_Excuse_ me!?"

"Your chest is really nice, Lovi! And I don't see any acne or anything on your shoulders…"

There wasn't any mirror nearby, but I was certain that if I had looked into one, I would see a bright red face looking back at me. "Stop _ogling _me, perverted tomato bastard! Do you see _me_ making comments like that when _you_ get out of the shower!?"

"No… but I wouldn't mind if you did."

I whipped around to the dresser, opened the bottom drawer, grabbed a pair of boxers, and stormed to the bathroom, coming out a moment later with the undergarment on. "Well, _I_ mind, so can you at least keep that stuff to yourself!? It makes me feel… I don't know… weird! Self-conscious!"

"Aw… okay." He looked at me with pure innocence in his spring-green, sparkling eyes. I sighed. "Just… whatever. What do you want to do tonight?"

"Hm…" he looked up in thought. "How about we play Truth or Dare?"

"…fine." I sat down on the floor and he sat opposite me. "I'm going first. Truth or dare, Antonio?"

"Dare~."

"Okay… I dare you to… hm… put an ice cube down your pants."

"Lovi, that's gonna be cold…"

"That's the point."

He grumbled, but walked over to the fridge, got a cube from the icemaker, and looked at me questioningly. I nodded. He sighed, opened up the waistband a bit, and dropped it down the leg. It stuck partway down his thigh and made a dark square where it was. He winced at the coldness a bit.

"Okay, Lovi, it's my turn… truth or dare?"

"…dare."

"Okay!" He pointed at me dramatically. "I dare you to… cut off your hair curl!"

I stared at him. "Look, that won't really work. The last time I got it cut off (because the stylist was being stupid), the little bastard grew back _literally_ the next day. And I… well, yeah. It'll just grow back tomorrow."

"That's really weird… but kinda cool, right?"

"Not really."

Before I noticed what he was doing, his hand reached out and started stroking my hair curl. "It's such a weird hair, anyway. It's like it has a mind of its own!"

I felt a tingle of pleasure shoot through my abdomen. _No! Not now!_ I quickly yanked myself away from him before it went too far. He looked at me curiously.

"Aw, what's wrong, Lovi?"

"_Don't_ touch the curl."

"Why?" he reached over again and grabbed it. Tingle. "What's wrong with—"

"Nn! Don't touch!" I slapped his hand away and ran to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. Reaching into the medical supplies, I grabbed the scissors that we kept for cutting gauze strips and used them to snip off the curl. It would grow back tomorrow, sure, but at least he wouldn't play with it anymore tonight.

Coming out of the bathroom, I grumbled "There, it's off. Happy? You happy, Antonio? I'm going to bed, I'm tired. Good night." And with that I strode past him and covered myself with the comforter on the bed.


	9. The Flowers, The Flow, And The Feeling

**I apologize in advance for the short chapter.**

* * *

In painting, we were practicing painting a still-life. While a still-life was marginally easier to paint than an action picture, I preferred the latter because for me, it captured life in its best moments, like a track runner breaking the finish ribbon, or a father playing with his child.

The subject today was a vase of flowers and a few flower petals surrounding it. The flowers and petals were fake, in order to insure that future classes would be able to use it – but it looked nice all the same. The easels were arranged in a rough circle, with everyone glancing at the center (at which the vase and flowers were located, set on a box) for reference, while the desks were pushed to one side, some stacked on top of others to save room. The teacher, who was currently reading at his desk, had set up a playlist of classical music to 'stimulate our creative senses'. About every ten minutes, he would get up and walk around the room to check on our progress. He quietly made comments on some particular students, like "Good job" or "Try for a bit more balance on this part".

Mr. Baker was coming around now, checking up on us again. When he got to me, I stiffened slightly. I could tolerate, but disliked, people looking over my shoulder at a work in progress. I'd painted the background yesterday, and it'd dried, so I was now painting the flowers over it. Mr. Baker smiled.

"Feli, you're making great progress on this! You really have a natural talent for this kind of thing!"

"I-It's not even done, sir," I protested quietly. It _did_ look nice, though.

"Of course, of course; but at this rate, you're on your way to becoming…" he grinned and spelled out the next word. "P-R-O-F-F-E-S-I-O-N-A-L!"

I smiled, but Ludwig, who was painting next to me, said quietly, "One F and two Ss, sir."

Mr. Baker glanced over at him. "Pardon?"

"Sorry to correct you, sir, but 'professional' is spelled 'P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L'."

He stared at Ludwig for a moment. "Oh. Um, thank you. Anyway, Feli, keep up the good work!"

The teacher moved on to Ludwig. "Now, Ludwig… your painting seems a bit stiff. I feel like you used a ruler for most of this while locking your arm and elbow in place. Feli," he said, turning to me, "why don't you help him?"

I jumped. "Help him?"

"Yes, help him. I see that your painting is nice and flowing, so maybe you could give Ludwig some tips on doing this."

He moved on before either of us could say anything. Ludwig sighed. "I took this class to get better at painting, and I'm already doing terribly…"

"No, it's good, really!" I said quickly. "But Mr. Baker's right, it's a little stiff. Loosen up!"

"How?"

"Um… well, relax. Think of nice things, not bad stuff like homework and nightmares!"

"…okay." He tried to move his arm around in a flowing motion, but even I could see, from my outside viewpoint, that he was still pretty stiff.

"Hold on, I'll help you." I came around behind him and held his right arm, the one that he was painting with, in my hands. I noticed his face turn pink out of the corner of my eye.

"Are you shy?" I joked. He quickly shook his head, but I saw that his face turned a little bit redder. I smiled and decided not to mention this.

"Okay, now just relax…" I felt the tension in his muscles ease a bit. "A bit more… a bit more… okay, you're good!" I started guiding his arm on panting the background, following the painting pattern he'd been using for it.

"Nice and easy~, nice and easy~," I sang as I guided his arm, letting it swoop across the canvas. In a minute, about half of the previously incomplete background was finished. Stepping back, I looked at Ludwig.

"See, it's easy! You can do it now, right?"

"I think so…" he hesitated before going for the canvas with the brush. The flow had improved immensely.

"Yay, you're better now!" I smiled and returned to my own painting. I'd chosen to portray the vase of fake flowers growing on an obviously fake bush with other fake flowers – some with vases sprouting at the bottom – growing around it, as well as a plastic doll reaching up to pluck the flowers right off the bush. Putting the finishing touches on the flower, I turned my attention to the doll.

"Say, Feliciano…"

I turned around to see Ludwig looking at me curiously. "What is it, Ludwig? Are you having trouble again?"

"No, actually, I was just wondering…" he reached up, grabbed, and tugged gently on the curl poking out from the side of my head. "What is this weird hair?"

Oh, boy – the curl. I'd asked Lovi about it privately a couple of weeks ago, asking him about what it did to me. He'd turned red (apparently, it did the same thing to him) and gave an explanation that – now that I think about it – seemed to make him uncomfortable to give. But I'd gotten the message: Don't let anyone pull the curl. And someone was pulling it now.

Some days, the curl's 'strength', so to speak, was weaker; some days it was stronger. Today, unfortunately, was one of its stronger days. I felt my face grow hot and a long, pleasurable tingle spread throughout my middle region. I opened my mouth, but thankfully managed to keep back what might have been a moan to a tiny whine. Ludwig looked at me in confusion.

"Feliciano, are you feeling alright? Your face is bright red…"

He let go of the curl as he spoke, and the feeling slowly vanished. I spoke, the temperature of my face going down.

"Um… please don't pull my curl… I don't like it."

"…okay?" he looked at me quizzically, shrugged, and turned back to his painting.

At that moment, Mr. Baker called for clean-up. Everyone scrambled to put their paintings away, talking and laughing. One girl glanced at my painting and raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrows. "Wow, you're like, really good. You should totally do art for money!"

"Thanks! Maybe I will!" I considered my options for the future as I stowed my painting and easel away in the back room. Professional painting sounded nice, but… would any art gallery or museum want paintings from an amateur? Maybe I could paint people for money at first…

I realized that I was taking a long time in the back room, and Eliza would worry if I came home late. Picking up my stuff, I walked out the door, shutting it behind me.

* * *

**If the real Mr. Baker is reading this: Yes, that is you, and yes, that is me correcting your spelling ;) **


	10. The Chat, The Interruption, And The Cafe

Later that night, I sat at the computer, chatting on Facebook with Lovi. Apparently he was at an internet café with Antonio, who was (or so he told me) on a separate computer. As for the computer I was using – it technically belonged to stepfather, with me being allowed to use it. He only used it once a night, to check his email, since – as he put it – some of the 'young' people he worked with in concerts and such didn't 'know how to write properly', which I took to mean writing letters by hand.

Anyway, I was allowed to use the computer as long as my homework was finished. Eliza had helped me set up a Facebook and email account a couple of years ago. I'd recently discovered that Lovi and Toni also had Facebook accounts (having set them up recently in the café).

**Feli Vargas-E**: toni wants to get a turtle? that's soooo cute!

**Lovino Vargas**: Turtles aren't cute, Feliciano! They're creepy!

**Feli Vargas-E**: eeeh? no theyre not!

**Feli Vargas-E**: *they're

**Lovino Vargas**: But… ugh, can you just imagine waking up and finding a small turtle crawling on your stomach?

**Feli Vargas-E**: …I would love that so much, though!

**Lovino Vargas**: Ack, you're hopeless. How're things with Eliza and Mr. Edelstein?

_Seen 7:31 P.M._

**Lovino Vargas**: Feliciano? You there?

**Feli Vargas-E**: sorry, lovi! eliza just came by to let me know that I have about half an hour left on the cmoputer, and then i have to get off ^^ she says hi

**Feli Vargas-E**: things are fine here; stepfather's kinda strict and eliza's still really nice :) how's living with toni?

**Lovino Vargas**: Well, he's Toni, so…

**Feli Vargas-E**: so… good?

**Lovino Vargas**: No, bad! Do you know what he did the other night!?

**Feli Vargas-E**: What?

**Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo**: Aw, did I do something wrong, Lovi?

**Lovino Vargas**: WHAT THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?

**Feli Vargas-E**: um… sorry, fratello! i added him to this for a group chat, but i didn't know he was on…

**Lovino Vargas**: Fantastic. Next time you do something stupid like that, can you at least WARN me!?

**Feli Vargas-E**: sorry, fratello! :(

**Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo**: Am I missing something?

**Lovino Vargas**: Only a brain.

**Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo**: Aw, don't be mean, Lovi :(

**Feli Vargas-E**: so what did he do, fratello?

**Lovino Vargas**: Well, I can't tell you now that he's here! I'll tell you later, okay?

**Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo**: Lovi, I'm sorry for whatever I did :'(

**Lovino Vargas**: You idiot, I can see you from where I'm sitting. You don't look the least bit sad.

**Lovino Vargas**: Stop faking it.

**Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo**: Lovi, I think the cafe's closing soon…

**Lovino Vargas**: Shit, you're right. Talk to you later, fratello.

**Feli Vargas-E**: bye, lovi! bye, toni!

_Lovino Vargas has signed off._

_Antonio Fernandéz Carriedo has signed off._

I pushed myself away from the computer, logging off as well, as stepfather came into the room. He nodded to me as a greeting and sat himself down to check for messages about upcoming concerts. I snuck off to say goodnight to Eliza before taking a shower.


	11. The Absence, The Fever, And The Visit

The next day, I went to the table where I usually sat with Lovi and Toni at lunch. Recently, Toni's friends Francis and Gilbert had started joining us, and Gilbert had started bringing Arthur's cousin, Matthew, to sit there as well. About a week ago, he'd yelled at all of us for not remembering Matthew's name, and now we only occasionally forgot it. Matthew seemed embarrassed about Gilberts actions, but never spoke out against them.

Today, everyone was there – everyone except for Lovi. I looked at Toni, who had started in on his homemade lunch. "Toni, where's Lovi?"

Francis glanced around the table. "Hm, I _thought_ someone was missing."

Toni said "He's home with a fever today – I think he caught some kind of bug in the café last night. He tried to eat breakfast this morning but threw up a few minutes later. I wanted to stay there and take care of him, but he said to come to school so that _both_ of our grades wouldn't drop."

"Oh, the poor dear!" said Francis dramatically.

"Aw, poor Lovi," I said sadly.

"Man, that sucks," muttered Gilbert. Matthew quietly nodded his agreement.

"Can I come over and see him?" I asked. "I'll have to ask Eliza and stepfather first, but I'm sure it'll be okay!"

"Sure, that's fine – I called boss earlier and asked if I could have the day off to take care of Lovi. He said okay, as long as I work an extra hour tomorrow."

"Well, crap. I can't come; I've got a fucking doctor's appointment after school."

"I can't come either," said Matthew regretfully. "Al said that he really wanted to see a movie with me, and I don't want to break my promise."

"I think I can come," said Francis happily. "I'll have to check, of course, but I'm pretty sure it's fine."

"Alright!" said Toni happily. "That's settled!"

We set to eating our lunches.

* * *

Francis and I rode Toni's bus after school. The bus driver lady was really nice – even though we didn't have passes, she let us ride this time (but she did say that we had to have them next time). I sat next to Toni, and Francis sat on the seat across the aisle.

When we reached Toni's stop, we got off and walked a block to the apartment building. Coming through the glass doors, we climbed the stairs up to his and Lovi's apartment. Toni took the key out of his backpack and unlocked the door, letting it creak open. The apartment was sparsely furnished, but nice all the same – a green couch against the wall, a small kitchen area, a dresser, a door that presumably led to the bathroom, and a bed next to the window, where I saw Lovi sleeping. His face was a bit flushed and his breaths were slightly shallow.

Toni hung his backpack on the hook and went into the bathroom, coming out a minute later with a small white thing. He hurried over to where Lovi was sleeping and felt his forehead, taking his hand off just a couple of seconds later. Francis and I came to Lovi's side too. I noticed some crackers and a glass of water on a napkin next to the bed. Lovi was starting to wake up. He looked around tiredly, his eyes half-closed.

"Toni?" he mumbled. He smacked his mouth a few times in order to speak better. "Feli? Francis? Wha're you doing here?"

"We came to visit you, _fratello_!" I said. Francis nodded. "We all missed you at lunch!"

"Mkay…" He lifted his head, turned it to Toni, and tried to glare. "What the hell're you doing here? Are you skippin' work?"

"Not exactly… I explained the situation to boss and he said that I could skip today if I put in an extra hour tomorrow without pay."

"That's not good… don't want to lose mon—" he was interrupted by a coughing fit that lasted about 30 seconds. Toni gently pressed him back into the bed and gave him the glass of water that was by the bed. Lovi drank, coughed a bit more, and gave the cup back to Toni.

"Have you eaten at all today, Lovi?" asked Toni worriedly.

"No. Not hungry."

"Hm… try to eat something tonight, okay? Just some crackers?"

"…fine."

"Okay, I'm going to take your temperature and see if it's gone down… keep the thermometer under your tongue, okay?" Lovi nodded and Toni stuck the white thing (the thermometer) in his mouth. It beeped a minute later and Toni checked the display.

"Hm… 102.5… it hasn't gone down much. That's not good…" he looked at Lovi. "You've been in bed all day?"

"I tried to get up once, but then I fell over and decided to go back to bed."

"Oh, that's not good," said Francis. "You really should stay in bed when you have a fever, even if you feel like getting up."

"Shaddup." Lovi rolled over, but looked back a second later. "Thanks for coming to visit."

"No problem, _fratello_~!"

"_Oui_, anytime."

Lovi had rolled over by this point and gone back to sleep. Toni looked at us and sighed. "I hope he gets better soon… I'm really worried."

"Don't worry!" I said happily, keeping my voice down as to not wake up Lovi. "I'm sure he'll be fine! I remember he's had a couple fevers before, and he was always feeling better in a couple days!"

"It's just… I don't like seeing him sick. Not only that, but we can't afford a hospital."

"What exactly is going on there, anyway?" said Francis curiously. "I don't think I've heard how all this happened… Feli, you and Lovi are brothers, correct? How did he end up living with Toni here?"

Toni explained the situation to him as briefly as possible.

"I see…" he glanced at me. "Is your stepfather really so horrible?"

"I don't really think he's _horrible_… but that's just me," I said. "He's often busy with his playing, 'cuz he plays the violin and the piano. And he's always going away on trips to concerts and things… he's kind of strict and really formal-looking and he talks all proper."

Francis frowned. "He sounds like a prick."

I giggled. Toni laughed. Francis smiled. Footsteps came down the hall—

Footsteps? I frowned. "Aw, I think Eliza's coming to pick me up. Stepfather didn't want me staying for long, for some reason."

Sure enough, there was a gentle knock on the door. "Feli? Toni? It's Eliza… I'm coming in, okay?"

The door opened and Eliza stepped in, her face lighting up when she saw us. "Feli, Toni, hi! You must be Francis," she added to Francis. He smiled and nodded. Then she saw Lovi lying in bed and hurried over to him. "Oh, Lovi! Are you feeling okay?"

Lovi turned over and woke up. He looked up. "Eliza?"

"Oh, sorry, honey! Did I wake you?"

"Yes."

"Sorry! How are you feeling? Are you getting enough fluids? You've stayed in bed, right?"

"'m fine," he mumbled. "Just tired."

"Okay, hon, just get better soon, okay?" She kissed his forehead and left him to sleep. Francis seemed to think it was funny how much she fussed over him. Coming back to where we stood, Eliza said "We have to get going, Feli. You know how your stepfather is."

"Aw, okay." I turned to Toni and Francis and said "Bye, guys! Toni, can you tell Lovi I said bye when he wakes up?"

"Sure!"

I walked out the door with Eliza, stealing one more glance back at Lovi.


	12. The Sleep, The Return, And The Tangling

A couple of days later, I found myself struggling to stay awake in biology. I'd gotten hardly any sleep the previous night, and was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Matthew (sitting across from me) noticed this and nudged me. "Feli," he whispered. "Feliciano, Ms. Farrand is talking…"

I tried to keep my head up and smiled at him. "Mm, I know. Thanks…"

He looked at me worriedly and turned back to listen to Ms. Farrand, who was writing something about photosynthesis on the board.

"So you see – the tree takes in sunlight from its top branches. The sunlight is absorbed through the leaves, taken in by the chlorophyll, and transformed from light energy into chemical energy. In this process, the…"

The next thing I knew, there was a sharp banging noise next to my head. My eyes flew open and I sat up very suddenly, falling over backwards in my chair. "I wasn't asleep!" I yelled. A lot of people laughed and I looked around. My tablemates were looking at me sympathetically. Ms. Farrand stood by my spot with a rolled-up piece of paper that she had apparently just banged on the table to wake me up.

She smiled down at me and said "Good morning, Feliciano. I trust that you're well-rested by now and ready to listen?"

I felt my face warm up as I picked myself up off the floor (Francis helping) and set my chair back where it was. Sitting down, I said quietly "Um, yes, I am. Sorry."

She sighed through her nose and went back to the whiteboard. Arthur leaned over and whispered "Sorry, Feliciano. We tried to wake you up, but we didn't want to be too loud."

"It's okay…" I yawned.

"Hey, don't go falling asleep again!"

* * *

At lunch, I had fully woken up and saw that Lovi was back. He looked a bit pale, but otherwise fine. I sat down to his right and said "Hi, Lovi! Is your fever gone?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he muttered. "I'm kinda tired." He was picking at his sandwich, eating bits and pieces of it.

"Oh," said Gilbert, grinning at me. "Hey, Feli, speaking of being tired…"

"Oh yeah, I fell asleep in biology today." I smiled sheepishly. "I didn't get much sleep last night, and learning that stuff is boring."

Toni laughed lightly. "Maybe just try going to bed earlier?"

"I'll try!" I leaned next to Lovi more and gave him a one-armed hug. "I hope you feel a lot better soon, Lovi!"

When I tried to pull away after he protested my hug, I felt a tugging sensation on the left side of my head. I felt my face grow hot and a tingle shoot through my middle region, near my crotch.

"Um, Lovi? Feli? Your curls are tangled together…" Toni pointed out kindly.

Lovi and I shrieked. "_Fratello_!" I yelled. "Get them untangled, quick!"

"I-I'm trying, Feliciano…!" He was working the curls out, but that was making it worse. I squeezed my legs together and hoped that no one noticed. As I'm sure that mine was, Lovi's face was bright red.

Toni frowned. "Here, let me…" he reached over. Lovi smacked his hand away.

"No! Fuck no! Absolutely not! Come on, Feliciano, we'll go to the restroom and take care of it!"

Thankfully, the restroom was close to our table. We walked close together awkwardly towards the door, made it in, and entered a stall, shutting the door behind us. Letting out a breath of relief, we made sure that no one else was inside, unlocked the door, and went to the mirror. Working carefully, taking turns, we managed to untangle the offending hairs. We sighed with relief and went into separate stalls to check. Once we'd confirmed that everything was fine, we went back to our table as casually as possible. Francis looked up upon our arrival.

"Lovi, Feli! Looks like you were successful, _oui_?"

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Lovi, sitting back down. I nodded. Toni looked at us concernedly.

"Are you sure you two are alright? Your faces were bright red…"

"We're fine!" Lovi and I said at the same time quickly. Toni shrugged and returned to his lunch, which consisted of a sandwich, half of an apple, and water. Lovi continued picking at his own lunch (which was identical to Toni's) and Francis was looking at us curiously.

"Mm?" I looked at him. "What is it, Francis?"

"Oh, _rien de special_… just thinking."

I noticed that he was glancing from me to Lovi, to our curls, back to us. And I prayed that if he figured it out, he at least wouldn't blurt it out in front of the whole table.


	13. The Ghost, The Invite, And The Movie

I sat in English the day after that, quietly reading a short story in the textbook. It was a bit creepy – it was set sometime in Europe, in the Middle Ages, and there was this weird plague going around and killing people. So some rich person decided to invite a hundred of his friends over and he barricaded everyone within his huge mansion to hide from the plague. But the in ending (which I was reading just now), a weird guy in a cloak and mask comes and everyone drops dead in front of him while the clock chimes. I put down the book, my hands shaking a little bit.

"Feliciano?"

I jumped and uttered a squeak as a hand touched my shoulder. A few kids looked up, but no one seemed to care much, as they went back to their reading a second later. Looking to my right, I saw Arthur withdrawing his hand in surprise.

"Sorry," he apologized, "I was just wondering if everything was alright."

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine! It's just that this story is kinda scary."

"I adore it," he replied calmly. "It's a wonderful metaphor for man's constant and hopeless struggle to avoid death."

I looked at him nervously. He noticed. "What is it? Is something wrong now?"

"…no, I guess not…"

"Hm." He returned his gaze to his book and started answering the questions at the end of the story. Realizing that I should do the same, I turned to my paper and started studying the questions.

"Five minutes, everyone!" called the teacher, Ms. Kim. She was a nice Korean woman with shoulder-length dark hair who seemed to love teaching, and she was – no other word for it – cute. It feels awkward to call a teacher cute, but that's what she was.

Going back to the questions, I managed to get about one of them done before Ms. Kim called that the rest would be homework tonight and to put the notebooks away. I sadly closed my notebook, thinking of having to do the rest tonight.

"So," she said cheerfully, looking around the classroom, "what'd everyone think of the story?"

Arthur raised his hand, but across the room someone shouted "It was really freaking scary!"

A few people laughed and I looked at who had spoken (me included). It was Arthur's other cousin (Matthew's fraternal twin), Alfred. His hair was the same color as his brother's, and had a cowlick at the part. Like his brother, he wore glasses. His eyes were sky-blue, and he was currently looking very scared.

"It's like…" he waved a hand, trying to think of what to say. "It's like a freaking ghost! And ghosts are super-scary! And that ghost killed all those people, so that's really scary too!"

The person sitting behind him leaned in without him noticing and yelled "BOO!"

Alfred literally jumped about five inches in the air. "YAAAH! THE GHOST CAME AFTER ME!"

The class started cracking up. Turning around, Alfred saw the person who'd done it (and who was also laughing) and glared. "Not funny."

Once everyone had calmed down, Ms. Kim said "Does anyone _else_ have thoughts on the story?"

Arthur raised his hand again. After she called on him, he repeated the same thing he'd told me. Ms. Kim smiled. "That was wonderful, Arthur! Did everyone hear that?"

I heard Alfred mutter "Suck-up." Arthur apparently heard it too, because he glared at him before turning back to the teacher.

No one had anything else to say, and the bell rang, so Ms. Kim dismissed everyone. I joined the students flowing out the door and shivered slightly as I walked out into the cold October air. As I started heading to geometry, I noticed Ludwig walking by the classroom in the same direction.

"Hi!" I called. He turned around as if surprised.

"Oh! Hi, Feliciano," he said in a surprised tone. "I was just going to class. Would you like to walk together?"

"Sure~!" I hurried to his side and we headed to the class. As we walked, he cleared his throat a couple of times like he wanted to say something. I waited. In a minute, he spoke.

"Er… Feliciano… do you like movies?"

"Eh?" I looked at him. "Yeah, movies are good! Horror movies scare me, though. Why do you ask?"

He looked away. "Well… you see, I… I was wondering if you… maybe wanted to go to a movie sometime? Together?"

"Sure!" I said without hesitation. "That sounds good!"

He looked at me with a small smile. "Really?"

"Uh-huh! Hey, do you mind if everyone else comes too? Like Lovi and Toni and Gilbert and Matthew and Francis and maybe Arthur and Arthur's cousin?"

The smile dropped from his face. "That's… a lot of people…"

"Oh, maybe just Lovi and Toni and us then! How about that~? I can help pay, if it's too much!"

He looked down at the ground. "I… sure. We can make it a group thing."

"Okay, that sounds good! You wanna do it Sunday?"

"Yes. Yes, Sunday is good."

"Yay~! I'll just ask Eliza and stepfather if it's okay~!"

"Okay. I'll ask my father as well."

"I hope it'll be okay! Let me know tomorrow!"

He nodded and we reached the classroom. I sighed and walked in, thinking of all the boring proofs I'd have to write today.

* * *

That Sunday, Eliza dropped me off in front of the movie theater. "Feli, remember to be in front of the theater by four, okay?"

"I know!" I said cheerfully, pecking her on the cheek and hopping out of the car.

"And don't talk to anyone, and if you're going to buy snacks, don't get too much—"

"I know all that, Eliza; I'll be fine!" I smiled and waved. She waved back and pulled out of the plaza, presumably driving back home. I watched her go, then turned and saw Ludwig, Lovi, and Toni waiting near the entrance.

"Hi! Am I late?" I called, walking towards them.

"Yes," muttered Lovi. Toni frowned at him.

"No, Feli, I think we all just got here earlier."

"Oh, okay! Can we go in, then?"

"Sure, as soon as we pay for the tickets," replied Ludwig. He and I paid for the group (Toni apologizing that they couldn't pay for themselves) and we entered the theater.

"Well, I think we have some time before the movie actually starts. Does anyone want any snacks?" Ludwig looked around the group. Lovi and Toni both denied hunger ("But I'll have some water," muttered Lovi) and I asked to share a small popcorn with Ludwig. He offered to go up to the counter, so I gave him the rest of my money just in case.

While he was purchasing the refreshments, Lovi glared at him. "I don't like him," he stated clearly.

"Eh? Why not?" I said. "He's really nice!"

"I just…" he looked at me, seeming to hesitate. "I just don't, okay!?"

"Okay…?" I tilted my head. "You don't like a lot of people, Lovi… Ludwig, Francis, and Toni…"

"Yup," he replied, "Tomato bastard, wine bastard, and potato bastard."

"Wine and potato?" said Toni.

"Yeah. Francis is French – or at least he speaks some French, and France is pretty famous for wine, right? And I'm pretty sure that Ludwig is German. So he's potato bastard. And speak of the devil…"

Ludwig was, indeed, returning with the popcorn and water. Lovi muttered his thanks and grabbed the water. I thanked Ludwig cheerfully and took the popcorn, asking if he wanted some butter on it. He said a little bit was fine, so I added some to the bucket and took it back. We entered the theater, where the previews were starting to air.

* * *

"That was a crappy movie," said Lovi as we walked out. Toni frowned at him.

"It wasn't that bad… I liked the jokes."

"For once, I agree with Lovino," said Ludwig. "The movie wasn't that great."

"Hm… I didn't think it was that bad. I mean… it was funny!" I tried to say something pleasant about the film.

"Sure, it was _funny_, but what about the plot?"

I hesitated. "Um…"

"There was hardly any plot! It went all over the place!"

I was about to try and protest, but Eliza pulled in front of the theater. I waved goodbye to everyone and climbed in the car. As I left, I saw Ludwig and Toni waving after me. Lovi seemed to be saying something to Toni, and as Eliza turned out of the plaza, I saw them heading towards their bikes.

* * *

**Poor Ludwig... so close, yet so far. If only Feli weren't so dense ^ε^'**


	14. The Swing, The Ninja, And The Oddity

I watched Mattie move higher and higher on the swing, smiling as he did so. I tried to match his movements so that we'd be swinging back and forth at the same time, but it was actually kind of difficult to do that.

"Oi, Mattie!" I yelled. He turned as he swung back and forth, steady as a pendulum.

"Watch this!" I let myself swing back one more time, and as I moved forward, I let myself fly off of the swing at its highest part. Landing perfectly on my feet, I held up my arms in an awesomely dramatic way and turned around. Mattie had slowed down and started clapping and smiling.

"That was great, Gil!" he called. I grinned.

"I think you mean 'awesome', right?"

"Sure, it was awesome!"

It was Sunday, and we'd decided to pay a visit to the local playground. There were a few kids, but they were avoiding us – maybe I was putting out some kind of aura of awesomeness that was too powerful for them or something. Anyway, the few kids there were all on the other side of the playground, either on the slides or in the sandbox or playing some form of tag. Looking back at Mattie, I saw that he'd gotten off of the swing and was stepping closer. "What do you think we should do now?" he asked cheerfully.

"Hm…" I scanned the playground. Some of the kids saw me glancing their way and scattered, laughing. Looking the other way, I noticed a tree whose leaves were starting to fall – and which had a thick branch fairly close to the ground. I pointed it out and said "Wanna sit in the tree?"

"Sure!" We headed to the tree, and when I glanced back, I saw that about half of the kids had run to the swings. Moving forwards, we reached the tree. I hopped up first, shimmying up the trunk a couple inches and hooking my legs around the branch, sitting up with my legs locked around it. I offered a hand to Mattie, who took it and braced his legs against the tree, grabbing the branch and easing up into a sitting position.

We sat there for about a minute before Mattie said "Hey… what's your favorite season?"

"Winter," I said without hesitation. "How about you?"

"Eh… er, I actually like summer best. If you don't mind me asking… why winter?"

I laughed. "Well, first off, the sun kind of hurts my skin if I stay in it for more than an hour." I poked my pale skin. "And I always liked to think – you know how it snows a lot around here? – I always liked to think that if I dressed in all white, I'd be, like… a snow ninja. Like, I'd be totally invisible."

He laughed, apparently imagining it. Then he looked at me and looked away. I stared at him. "You know, Mattie, if you wanna say something, that's cool."

"Oh, I…" he hesitated. "I was actually wondering… is anyone else in your family…" he gestured to me.

"Albino?" I supplied. He nodded and looked down.

"Hey, it's fine, nothing to get worried about! I don't actually know if anyone in my biological family was albino, but probably, considering how I turned out."

"Biological family?" he asked.

"Yup. I'm adopted. Apparently, my little bro's mom passed away a couple months after he was born. But she and _vati _always wanted another kid, so I was adopted soon after that, apparently. I'm really only a few months older than Luddie."

"Oh."

"So why do you like summer?" I tried to get the conversation moving.

"I… I just like the sun, I guess. I like it when it's warm… but I don't mind winter! I just prefer summer."

"Cool!" I shifted myself into a more awesome (and comfortable) sitting position.

"Er… Gil?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering… is there any particular reason for your grades? I mean, you're getting a lot of D's, right?" his face turned red. "Y-You don't have to answer if you don't want to! I mean, it's none of my business… never mind."

"Jesus Christ, Mattie, you're so nervous! It's fine."

He looked up, the redness fading. "So… eh…"

"Well… sometimes it's because I don't really try, but mostly it's because… I don't actually know the stuff. I'm not really smart," I admitted. He looked at me concernedly.

"But bad grades can affect you from here on out! You might not be able to graduate with everyone else; your job options will be limited…"

I thought about it. "Okay, yeah, but even if I started studying really hard, I don't think there's much I can do to up my grades."

"I'm not trying to argue, but at this point, you can try for a C or even a B. And next semester, the grades basically reset, so you'll have a fresh start. And a lot of colleges take a look at your entire grade chart, so if they see that your grades improved over the years, there's a better chance of you being accepted."

"Huh!" I sighed through my nose. "I never knew that…"

"I can help you study, if you like… I mean, if you really don't know the stuff…"

"That…" I looked at him. "That would be awesome, actually."

"R-Really?" he looked at me kind of shyly.

"Yeah!"

"O-Okay. Um… is there any class you _are_ getting an A or B in?"

"Yeah – German," I replied. "Easy A, right there. _Vati _and my little bro speak some German around the house, and I've picked up on some of it. Plus, _vati_'s all proud of me for studying the language of his heritage. What language are you taking?" I added.

"F-French…" he looked down again. "I… my grandfather – _grandpère_ – taught me some French when I was little. Actually, he taught me a lot, but I have trouble remembering it sometimes and… well, it sounds nice, so I wanted to learn it."

"Hm… neat! Better reason than my little bro – he's taking Italian, because apparently he really liked this Italian girl back in fifth grade, and he wants to impress her if he sees her again. Kind of makes him a pansy, if you ask me. So how's your grandpa now?"

"…he… he died a few years ago."

I frowned. "That sucks. I'm sorry."

"I-It's okay! Um, is something wrong?"

I'd been looking at him curiously while he'd been talking. Pointing to his forehead, I asked "What's that hair there?"

He stiffened slightly – just enough so that I noticed. "Y-You mean this?" he pointed to the weird downward curl of hair that originated at his forehead hairline.

"Yeah, that," I said.

"I… well…" he fidgeted a bit. "I'm not sure what you mean… it's just some weird hair…"

"Does it do anything?" I asked suddenly, leaning forward.

"D-Do anything? No, of c-course not! It's just hair, like I said! Why would it do anything?"

"I dunno… I was just thinking that it would be so awesome if it, I dunno... shot lasers."

He stared. "Lasers?"

"Yeah." I leaned over to tug on it. "It's so weird…"

"Wait, please don't—"

Tug.

"—_tire dessus_—"

I let go of the hair and looked at him. "Wait, what?"

He shut his mouth and his face turned red.

"No, seriously, _what_?"

He gestured to the curl, his face still red.

"Hm?" I looked at the hair. "What?"

He mimed taking something and tugging it.

"What, you want me to pull it again? Is this some weird fetish?"

He held up a finger and nodded; held up a second finger and shook his head. So… yes to the pulling, no to the weird fetish. I shrugged and tugged on the curl. He waited a moment before opening his mouth and speaking.

"Please…" he paused and the redness started to fade from his face. "Please don't pull the curl."

"Okay," I said, facing him full on and crossing my arms, trying to look as stern as possible, "and now that you're talking again, how about you tell me _why_?"

He looked away.

"Don't look away."

He looked back slowly, his face turning red again. "I… I just—"

I quickly took the curl and gave it a small tug.

"—_n'aime pas il quand quelqu'un_—" He stopped talking again and his face turned red. He motioned to the curl with a hand.

I crossed my arms again. "Okay, no. I'm not pulling it again until you tell me what's going on."

He tried to glare at me, but it wasn't very effective. He gestured to the curl.

"No. Speak, little Mattie!"

He sighed and spoke. "_D'accord. Quand quelqu'un tire la boucle, je n'empêcher pas parle français. Maintenant tu veux tire il, s'il tu plais?_"

I stared at him some more. "Speak English, dude."

He sighed again. "_Non! Je ne peux pas parle anglais!_"

"Okay, wait. You said English somewhere in there, yeah? Can you, like, sign or something?" I made motions with my hands to demonstrate.

He nodded and said slowly "_Je…_" he gestured to himself. "_…ne peux pas_…" he shook his head. "_…parle…_" he mimed talking. "_…anglais_."

"You…" I frowned. "You can't speak English? No, you can't… you can't speak English when someone pulls the curl!?"

He nodded and gestured impatiently to the curl. I pulled it, and he waited a moment before talking.

"Thanks, Gil… I don't mean to be rude, but it would have been easier for me to tell you what happens if you had pulled the curl earlier."

"Hold everything," I said. "You can only speak French when the curl is pulled?"

"Yes…" he looked down. "I don't like it. It goes away within an hour or two, but it also goes away faster if someone pulls it again."

"Wow. That is the weirdest and awesomest thing I've _ever heard_!" I grinned at him. "Hey, that must come in handy in your French class, huh?"

"No…" he murmured. "It doesn't work when I do it." He reached up and pulled it to demonstrate. "See?"

"Hm…"

"And I can't exactly ask people to pull it…"

"I see…" I looked up in the tree. "Still, it's kind of awesome."

"Not for me… if someone accidentally pulls it, I have to wait a while before talking."

I pulled the curl.

"_G-Gilbert!_" His face flushed again. "_Pourquoi!?_"

I grinned. "I'm gonna guess that means 'why'. And my answer is: 'why not?'."

He sighed and turned away with a huff. "_Parfois je ne peux pas tolérer-tu_."

"Assuming you mean 'You are the most awesome person ever', I'm gonna say yes to that."


	15. The Anger, The Friends, And The Spell

_"…tu-ra-lu-ra-lu-rah… tu-ra-lu-rye-ay!"_ _Momma puts down her lute and smiles at me. I clap my small hands. _

_ "That was good, momma!" I say happily. She kneels by me and kisses the top of my head. _

_ "Would you like to hear it again tomorrow?" she asks, smiling again. _

_I nod. "I love that song so much!"_

_ "I know you do, my little sprite," she says. _

_ "Momma," I say as she picks me up and carries me to my room for a nap, "when will you show me the faeries, like in the song? I wanna see them like you do." _

_ "Soon, honey, soon," she says, stroking my hair. "When you're older, okay?"_

_ "Okay," I say, yawning. I snuggle in to her chest and drift off…_

* * *

And now I was sitting in a classroom, learning about properties of triangles. Things sure could change in a short amount of time. Luckily, the bell rang a few seconds later. As usual, the teacher taught right up to the bell, so he hurriedly assigned homework and went back to his desk. Everyone wrote down the assignment and left for lunch as quickly as possible, myself included. I bought school lunch once in a while, but didn't particularly care for it, so I had once again brought lunch from home today. I was heading to the table outside where I usually sat when I saw Matthew approaching.

"Hello, Matthew," I nodded to him. "How're you?"

"Fine, Arthur…" he said. "I was wondering if you wanted to sit with us."

"That depends," I said, turning to face him properly. "Whom do you mean by 'us'?"

"Well…" he ticked off on his fingers. "There's me, Gil—"

"Gil? You mean Gilbert? Sorry, go on."

"…Feli, Lovino, Toni, Francis… oh, and Ludwig recently started sitting with us," he finished. I frowned.

"Thank you, but no thanks, Matthew. I'd rather not sit at any table that has _Francis _sitting at it." Turning to go, I waved. "I'll see you around."

He looked as if he was about to protest, but kept silent and waved, going inside to (presumably) sit with those he'd mentioned. I went to my table and sat down, taking my lunch out of my backpack with a sigh. I'd probably have accepted his request if Francis hadn't been included in the list. Opening the sack, I found a note inside. Judging from the messy scrawl, it was from Seamus, my oldest elder stepbrother and official guardian.

Hey, Artie – I'm not going to be around when you get back. They needed me at work. Dean and Colin and James will be, though. If I'm not back before seven, just get some spaghetti from the pantry. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO COOK IT YOURSELF. I don't want the kitchen almost burning down like last time. Just get Dean to cook it.  
Later,  
Seamus

I crumpled up the letter and shoved it in my pocket. My cooking wasn't _that_ bad and only a little bit of the kitchen had caught fire last time. Taking out my lunch (which consisted of a meat-and-cheese sandwich, a thermos full of tea, and an apple), I lifted the sandwich to my mouth and paused. I lowered it and looked around – the few students eating outside were all in groups, talking and laughing. I usually didn't sit in groups; I was almost always by myself…

Making up my mind, I repacked the lunch and stood up to go inside. I'd try sitting in a group for once – to hell with Francis.

I scanned the cafeteria and found Matthew's group. Walking over, I waved and said "Hello. Matthew, I hope your offer still stands."

He looked up. "Yeah, of course it does, Arthur!" he moved over a bit so that I would have a spot to sit down at. I seated myself and took out my lunch again.

"Hi, Arthur!" Feliciano cried, waving his arms. "Are you gonna sit with us now?"

I smiled at him. "Maybe I will, Feliciano. Depends on how today goes."

"K!" he turned back to his lunch and continued eating. I raised my sandwich to my mouth again and took a bite. Once I swallowed, I glanced up to see Francis looking at me. I scowled – I hadn't forgotten the time when he'd taunted me in biology.

"Do you want something?" I said abruptly.

"Mm… not particularly." He looked away, but I noticed that he looked back a minute later.

"Do you want something?" I repeated. "And keep in mind that I'm only asking because you continue to look at me."

"Well," he stated, "I wasn't looking _at_ you, really… I just happened to be looking and you were in the way."

"That's bullshit," I said. "Really, what is it?"

"To be honest…" he scratched the back of his head. "I was merely wondering about your friend that you mentioned one time in Farrand."

I noticed that the whole table was listening by now. "I _really_ shouldn't have mentioned that to you," I said. "It's none of your business, after all. What were you wondering, anyhow?"

"Just wondering if you were making her up," he said, looking at me expectantly, waiting for a response. I set down the remainder of my sandwich and fixed him with the coldest gaze I could manage.

"You have no right to say that. If you knew _anything_, anything at all about this, you would not be saying that. If you knew anything about what I could _do_ to you, you would watch your step around me. You – do – not – know – _anything_."

Lovino started clapping sarcastically. I glared at him and he stopped, hiding behind Antonio, who was sitting next to him.

Francis was smirking. "Oh? And just out of curiosity, what _could _you do to me, Arthur?"

God, I hated that smirk – like he was _so_ much better than me.

"Trust me; you do _not_ want to know. For your information, I'd do it here if I had the necessary equipment, and if I didn't care about causing a scene in the lunchroom."

"Oh, you want to fight?" he grinned. "Kinky."

Feliciano looked confused, Gilbert grinned, and Matthew blushed. I, for one, was furious.

"Watch your mouth, Bonnefoy, or I'll jinx it closed," I growled. "I am starting to lose my patience with you."

"Jinx it?" he raised an eyebrow. "Like magic? Honestly, Arthur, didn't your mother ever teach you that magic doesn't exist?"

Oh God, that was it. I came so close to punching him in the face, right in that smug mouth of his. I got so far as to draw back my fist. His eyes widened and he flinched – but I stopped myself just before it connected. I felt my eyes filling with tears, so I quickly packed up my lunch once again, said "Sorry, Matthew, I don't think I can sit here anymore," and left without another word.

No, Mr. Francis Bonnefoy was not worth dirtying up my fist for. I'd take care of him later tonight.

* * *

_I stumble to the golden glowing tree in the middle of the forest, ignoring the scratches and nettle stings on my person – which are fading and closing before my eyes. At last, I'm here. It's the glowing elm tree, just like in the song that mom always sang. Now what comes next?_

_"…Walk the clock and see the wonders  
Of the faerie world…"_

_ Walk the clock… I try to picture a clock in my head, the kind with hands. Which way do the hands go… yes! They go right! I step to the tree, facing it. Imagining the tree as a clock, I quickly correct my mistake and face away from it. I turn to my right and start walking in a circle, sticking as close to the tree as possible._

_ Once I have reached a full circle, my vision grows fuzzy. I automatically put a hand to my eyes, but the flickering dark spots disappear and the world becomes clear again. I look up and gasp._

_ Faeries of all kinds are hovering around the tree. Some are looking at me curiously. When they realize that I can see them, they giggle and dart away. Looking around in awe, I see a small group of creatures sitting far from the tree – looks like a light green rabbit with lovely wings, a faery with a yellow dress and boots, a brownie with a green hat and a moustache, and a small unicorn – a unicorn pony? I approach them slowly, as to not frighten them…_

* * *

Sage and Marigold hovered by me, while Rowan and Fern stood by. I held my wand at the ready while studying a spell book, looking for a good one to use on Francis.

"Arthur?" said Marigold, sitting on my shoulder. "Are you sure that you want to do this?"

"If I wasn't sure, Mari, I would have put away the book by now." I didn't look up, continuing to study the spells listed. "Ah, here's one…"

I turned to the page and looked at the incantation listed. Unfortunately, testing out how to say the words took a few minutes – but I knew that I had to hurry, because dinner would be ready soon; Dean would scold me for trying to cast bad luck upon someone and probably confiscate my wand. He was the only one in the house (other than me) who knew that magic was real – Seamus always scoffed at the notion, and Colin and James just thought it was funny.

"Hm…" I snapped the book shut and stood, stretching. "Looks like this particular spell must be done in presence of the victim. I suppose it can wait until tomorrow."

"Do you mind if we go back to the forest, Arthur?" Fern pawed the ground and blinked.

"Of course I don't mind – I don't control you," I said, walking over to open a window. They floated or jumped out, landing on the roof outside and hopping to the yard from there.

* * *

I yawned as I got off the bus, shaking myself mentally to stay awake. I had to be on alert to perform the spell properly, and to find Francis.

And speaking of the devil…

The blond bastard himself came rounding the corner a few feet away, laughing about something with Gilbert and Antonio. When he saw me, he said something to them and approached me, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Uh… morning, Arthur." He said. Before I could say anything, he continued. "Er, listen… Matthew told me about your mother. Sorry for what I said."

"I…" I smirked. "I _do not_ accept your apology, Francis. It doesn't change my mind about what I'm about to do."

"Eh? What're you gonna – gck!"

I grabbed his arm and dragged him away. Behind us I heard Gilbert mutter to Antonio "You think they're gonna go make out?"

I dragged him to the other end of the school, behind the gym. "Good," I said, looking around approvingly. "No-one comes here in the mornings."

"Arthur, what—"

I held up a finger and took off my backpack, searching the main compartment. "Ah, here it is…"

I took out a strip of cloth and some rope and quickly binded and blindfolded Francis to a pole. "What're you _doing_!?" he exclaimed, struggling against his bonds.

Taking out a container – which was long and skinny for the most part, but became bulbous at the top – I carefully took off the upper half of the rounded end and pulled out my wand.

I raised the wand, pointed it at him, and started to chant.

"_Tsenoh ot dog  
I lliw eguog tuo ruoy traeh  
Raet uoy ot seceip  
Dna pir uoy trapa…_"

The wand started glowing. Francis said nervously "A-Arthur…?"

I increased the volume of my voice.

"_Tsenoh ot dog  
I lliw eguog tuo ruoy traeh  
Raet uoy ot seceip  
Dna pir uoy trapa…_"

"Arthur, you're scaring me…" he murmured as the wand grew brighter.

I increased my voice volume more, raising it with each line I said:

"_Tsenoh ot dog  
I lliw eguog tuo ruoy traeh  
Raet uoy ot seceip  
DNA PIR UOY TRAPA!_"

Indigo light shot out of the wand and engulfed him. He twitched in the ropes – the light faded and we were left in the light of the streetlamp once again. I untied him and removed the cloth, put away my things, and left with a casual "Have a fun day, now."

* * *

I sat at lunch with Matthew and the others again that day. I noticed that Francis looked rather upset and asked Gilbert what was wrong with him.

He waved a hand. "Oh, Francis is just having a really shitty day. Like, in geometry this morning, he totally got the wrong answer when the teacher asked him a question, then he tripped when he got up to sharpen his pencil, which had snapped off and hit someone in the head… you saw what happened in biology… and he won't tell me what happened in third, but apparently in fourth—"

"Gilbert, you can stop now…" said Francis, miserably taking a bite from his sandwich.

"Oh _dear_, Francis…" I said false-kindly. "Are you really having that bad of a day?"

He looked up at me, his eyes widened, and he looked back down, mumbling "Yeah, I am…"

"Oh, yes," said Antonio, "what'd you do to him this morning, Arthur? He won't tell us what happened, but he seemed slightly disturbed."

"Nothing special," I said, smiling, "nothing special at all."

Feliciano's water bottle slipped out of his hands and most of it spilled all over Francis' pants.

* * *

**In case you couldn't tell, the spell was to cause the victim to have to endure a bad-luck day - specifically in the area of public humiliation.**

**It was somehow really fun writing for Arthur :D**


	16. The Naps, The Foreigner, And The Cats

**I apologize for uploading this almost a week late - due to pit orchestra practice, I've been coming home at around 8:30 and therefore had very little time to type.**

**I also apologize ahead of time if this chapter bores you ^^'**

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes to find that I was still in class – with the bell about ten minutes away from ringing. The teacher glanced up, noted that I was awake, and glanced back down. I waited until I could move again before sitting up, copying down the assignment, and getting to work. The bell rang soon, and I moved with the flow of students out the door. Hopefully I would stay awake in my next class.

"Hey, Herc," said Gilbert, moving past me. "You fell asleep again?"

I nodded. "I… didn't mean to, you know."

"Yeah, not your fault. See you later." He winked and strolled out of the classroom with Francis, presumably to go to his next class – unless he was going to skip again.

* * *

Usually, I sat by myself at lunch. But bringing the tray around, I saw that someone was sitting by himself – wasn't he that Japanese student? He had a kind of bowl cut, was a bit short, and was reading some kind of graphic novel. I went over to him; he looked up.

"Hello…" I said. "Do you mind if… I sit here?"

"No, I don't mind," he said. I sat down.

"Do you usually sit… by yourself?" I asked.

"No." he said. "I often sit with my friend Alfred."

I thought of Alfred Jones, who was usually loud, a bit obnoxious, and cheerful. "Okay. My name's… Hercules."

"It is nice to meet you," he said. "My name is Kiku." He held out a hand. I took it and shook. Just then Alfred came to the table, holding his lunch tray.

"Hey, Kiku!" he said happily. "Who're you?"

This was directed to me. "I'm… Hercules. Nice to meet you."

He grinned. "Hercules? Cool name." he sat down next to Kiku and across from me. "Dude, you look tired. Did you sleep last night?"

"Of course I did… but I…"

I felt tiredness start to grow, like someone was slowly pulling a blanket over me. I shook my head. "I… sorry… I have narcolepsy… so…"

"What is narcolepsy?" asked Kiku. I couldn't move at this point, so I was unable to answer him. A few seconds later, my head dropped to the table and I fell asleep for the second time that day.

* * *

Opening my eyes, I found I was still in the same position as when I'd fallen asleep. Kiku and Alfred were quietly talking. Alfred glanced at me and said "Oh hey, you're awake! I was gonna take you to the nurse soon, so good thing, huh?"

I waited a moment and pushed myself up to start eating my lunch. "Yeah… I'm fine."

"So what's that thing you said?" he continued.

"Narcolepsy?" I asked. "It's a… disorder. Basically, it means… that I'm tired almost all the time, and… I have to take naps during the day, which I can't help."

"You sleep a lot?" asked Kiku. I nodded.

"It's… nothing to be too concerned about."

Alfred whistled. "How are you doing in classes, then, if you fall asleep a lot?"

"Not too well… I'm thinking about getting a… tape recorder to hear what the teacher says."

"Oh, cool," he said.

"So, Kiku…" I said. "How long have you… lived here?"

"This is my first year living here," he said. "I took English lessons for five years before arriving. I think of this one as my six year."

"Okay…" I said. "Do you like… it here?"

"It is much different from Japan," he said. "It is taking time to get used to America."

"Yeah, but that's pretty much true for any country move, right?" said Alfred cheerfully, shoving the second half of his hamburger into his mouth.

"That was… impressive," I said. He looked up.

"Huh?"

"Never mind…"

"You got any siblings, Herc?" asked Alfred, now chewing some fries, all of which had mysteriously disappeared from his tray in the few seconds that I'd looked away.

"No…" I said. "Do you?"

"Yup! I got a brother and a cousin going here! Oh hey, they're over there!" he stood up and waved. I turned around and saw someone who looked a bit like Alfred, who waved back. Someone else glanced up at him, rolled his eyes, and glanced back down. That had to be his cousin.

"You got any pets?" he said, sitting down.

"No…" I said. "Not exactly… but whenever I go outside… cats seem to come to me. I love cats… but I can't have any at home… my mother's allergic, though she… likes cats too. I feed them… sometimes. They like cream."

Kiku looked up interestedly. "Are the cats cute?"

"Yes, they're all cute… do you like cute things?"

His face remained neutral as he replied "Perhaps."

"Would you like to… come over sometime to… visit the cats?"

"…may I think about it?" he asked. I nodded.

Alfred sat back down after apparently throwing away his lunch tray. I blinked. "When did… you get up?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing…"

* * *

I waited on my front porch for Kiku, who had called this morning and agreed to come (he sounded reluctant, for some reason). I spotted him coming up the street a few minutes later. I waved as he got closer.

"Hello…" I said. "I didn't know that… you lived close enough to walk."

"Hello, Hercules," he greeted. "I live three streets from here. And besides, I often walked to places in Japan, or took the bus."

"Hm… I guess that… most people drive here."

"Yes, I have noticed that." He looked around.

"Oh… the cats haven't come yet…" I said. As if to purposely contradict my statement, one came out from behind a tree and trotted over to me. I shrugged, let it sniff me, and picked it up, stroking its head.

"Look…" I said, pointing. More cats were starting to come. One came up to Kiku and rubbed against his legs, purring. He hesitated and looked at me nervously.

"It's okay…" I assured him, stroking the other cats that were coming along. "Just let him sniff you first…"

He held out a hand. The cat sniffed it and then pressed its head into his hand. He sat down and stroked it.

"There… that wasn't so hard…" I teased. He nodded and continued stroking the cat, eventually picking it up and cuddling it.

All in all, it was a nice afternoon – except for the part where I fell asleep on top of a cat.

* * *

**If you'd like to know more about narcolepsy... well, you'd better check Wikipedia, because they do a better job of explaining it than I do.**


	17. The Paint, The Query, And The Agreement

**Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't updated this in... let's see, how long has it been?**

***checks date of last update***

**OH MY GOD IT'S BEEN SEVEN WEEKS WHICH IS OVER A MONTH FORGIIIIIVE ME *bows head in ultimate shame***

**I did take an unplanned hiatus from this story, just until I could get my ideas together, but I only meant it to last a couple of weeks. I'M SO SORRY D:**

* * *

"Heeeey, guys!" I called as I walked to the table and sat down. Lovi looked up and shrieked.

"Feliciano, what the hell happened to your face?!"

The others looked up and reacted with surprise.

"Oh, yeah…" I said, touching my blue-and-white colored face. "There was kind of a paint war yesterday in sixth period… I tried to hide, but got caught in the middle…"

"Hah! I bet your prick stepdad was pissed!" Gil laughed.

"Yeah, kinda…"

"_Guten morgen_," muttered Ludwig, sitting next to me. His face was still colored with white and red. "Feliciano, did you tell them about the paint?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Alright. I'm sorry again for hitting you."

"It's okay! It was an accident!"

He nodded and took a bite from his pizza. Remembering what I had first intended to bring up, I clapped my hands together and cried "Oh _yeah_!"

Ludwig coughed. After chasing down his pizza with a gulp of milk, he turned and said "Don't do that. What is it?"

"Sorry! I was just wondering… Christmas is coming up in like three weeks, so what do you all want?"

"A new bed would be nice," muttered Lovi. Toni smacked him.

"We're going to get that with our _own_ money, Lovi! Don't ask Feli to get a bed!"

"Fine! I dunno… maybe a book?"

"Okay! Guys?"

"I don't need anything," whispered Matthew.

"Well, Feli," said Gil, slinging his arm around Matthew (who blushed in response), "as long as you're offering and it's Christmas, how about a gift certificate to some restaurant for me and Mattie here?"

"Gil!"

"What? We're dating, right? So it's okay."

He sputtered. "_What_?"

"I said we're dating, right? So it's—"

"No—not that—I meant—" he took a breath. "We're _dating_?"

Francis laughed. "You didn't know that you two were going out? I'm pretty sure everyone here knew it."

"Wait, Mattie… you didn't know?"

"No one said anything about it until now…"

"So, basically," said Lovi, "everyone here knew that you two were dating except for you. Which is kind of weird, you know?"

"So, what, you don't wanna go out anymore, Mattie?" asked Gil. Matthew looked up, his face flushed again.

"I—no! I mean, I do, but—I—I just—of course I do! Just—please tell me next time?" he ended in a whisper.

Gil laughed. "Yeah, Mattie. Next time I decide that I'm going to start dating you, you'll be the first to know."

"Thanks…"

"The only thing that I want, Feli," said Francis seriously, "is a book that tells me how to understand the strange workings of Arthur's slightly insane mind."

"Funny," said Arthur curtly, "I had something similar in mind: a book that would tell me how to understand the blockheaded practicalities of Francis' unusual mind."

"Oh!" I said. "So do you know where they sell those books?"

They looked at me. "I wasn't being serious, Feli…"

"Nor was I," agreed Francis.

"Get a room already," said Gil. They both glared at him and he held up his hands as if to say "What?"

"So what do you actually want, Francis?" I asked.

"Well, a book like I just mentioned _would _be nice, but seeing as how it doesn't exist…" he thought. "How about a beautiful lady?"

"Um…" I scratched my head. "I don't think I could get you that…"

"That's okay, Feli… I can get a beautiful lady anytime I want to~!" he flipped his hair back.

"Tell me, Francis," said Arthur, resting his head on one hand, "is the grass purple in your dream world?"

They proceeded to shout at each other. Toni and Gil ended up pulling them apart. I turned to Ludwig. "Ludwig, what do you want?"

"Nothing," he said immediately. "I mean… you don't have to get me anything."

"But I want to!" I insisted. He looked away.

"No, really, I don't want anything."

"But…" spoke up Gil. "Weren't you saying something about a book on how to as—"

Ludwig, sometime around when Gil was saying "something", got up, went around, and swiftly covered his brother's mouth. "Do not finish that sentence, Gilbert, or so help me God you will never see the light of day again."

Gil nodded and Ludwig let go. He went back to his seat and said "So as I was saying, I have no need or want for anything."

"Well… okay…"

"But the question is," said Arthur, "what do _you_ want, Feli?"

"Um…" I thought. "I guess… all I really want is to spend Christmas with everyone!"

Gil stared at me. "That sounded _so_ cheesy. Let's do it. Any ideas?"

"Well… we could go out to eat… watch a movie… go out to eat… go bowling… um… did I mention eating?"

"Yes, that all sounds fine to me," said Francis cheerfully. There was general agreement around the table.

"Would it be alright if I invited Al?" asked Matthew. "My brother…"

"Yeah, of course~!"

"Okay, thanks…"

"Hark! Do I hear my favorite twin call my name in his lilting yet very soft voice?"

Al had appeared behind Matthew. Francis stared at him. "When did you—never mind."

"Oh, Al! Perfect timing… do you want to come with us on a group outing kind of thing? It'd be on Christmas, or maybe the day after or before…"

"Yeah," he said immediately. "Sounds awesome! Is it okay if I bring a couple friends?"

"Who?"

"Kiku – you know, that Japanese kid – and Hercules."

"Hercules?" asked Arthur. "Isn't he the one who has that disorder… what was it called… the one that makes him tired?"

"Yeah, it's… um…" Al looked like he was thinking hard. "Um… marfolepsy! Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's who it is."

"Sure!" I said happily. "The more the merrier!"

"Sweet! I'll let them know! Gimme the details later, 'k, Matt?" He grinned at his twin, and then went off towards his table. Despite it being at least halfway across the cafeteria, he was there in less than five seconds.

"How does he _do_ that?" Gil asked Matthew, to which the latter merely shrugged.


	18. The Question, The Tea, And The Scolding

**I made you all wait over a month again, and I am so sorry ;_;**

* * *

I opened the door and called "Stepfather, stepmother, I'm home!"

Eliza came to the door and hugged me. "Hi, Feli! How was your day?"

"It was good," I said, hugging her back. "Is stepfather home?"

"Yes, he was just getting ready to practice his piano," she replied, and sure enough, the sounds of Chopin came floating down the hall a moment later.

"Eliza, I was wondering…" I said, taking off my shoes.

"Hm?"

"Is it okay if my friends and I go out by ourselves around Christmas? We wanna go out for dinner, and maybe bowling, and…" I trailed off, not sure what else we were going to do.

"No adults?" she confirmed, leading me to the kitchen so I could have a snack.

"We wanted to go without any adults…" I looked at the sliced fruit on the counter.

"I just wanted to make sure," she said, smiling as she placed the fruit in front of me while I sat down. "I'm okay with you going, but we have to make sure that it's all right with your stepfather."

"Okay! Thanks~!" I took a bite of an apple.

* * *

"Oi, _vati_!" I yelled, kicking off my shoes. "_Vati_!"

He appeared at the top of the stairs, looking annoyed. "Yes, Gilbert, what is it?"

"Me and Lud and some friends are going out around Christmas, k?" Lud, standing next to me, nodded in agreement.

"And I'll consider letting you go if you ask properly," he said, turning away. I groaned.

"Fine. May Ludwig and I _please_ go out with some friends around Christmas?"

"Now I shall consider it. In the meantime, you two should get started on your homework."

"Yes, _vater_," said Lud.

"Sure, whatever," I muttered.

* * *

I stepped inside my house and took off my shoes, bending down to untie the laces. "I'm home," I called. "Seamus, are you there?"

Dean came around the corner. "Hi, Art. He's not home right now – he's working overtime at the place. Why, do you need something?"

"Sort of," I replied, hanging my backpack on the coat hooks. "I'm going to ask for permission to go out with some friends around Christmastime."

"Friends?" he asked. "Any of them your girlfriend or boyfriend?"

For some reason, Francis' smug face flashed into my mind. "NO!" I vehemently denied.

He held up his hands and grinned. "Whoa, okay. Just wondering, jeez."

I sighed and hung up my coat. "When will he be home?"

"He said on the phone probably around teatime."

"That's alright, I suppose. Would you like some tea in the meantime? I can put on a kettle…" I offered. He shook his head vigorously.

"No, Art! We can't risk you even entering the kitchen, let alone making something!"

I scowled. "Just because I can't make a meal that involves slicing and baking, it doesn't mean that I can't boil teabags! Honestly…"

Colin and James came down the hall, laughing about something.

* * *

Al and I walked through the doorway, taking off our shoes. "Hey, mom, dad!" yelled Al. I quietly shut the door behind us.

"Yes?" came our mother's voice, floating down the stairs.

"Is it okay if Mattie and I go out with some friends around Christmastime?"

Pause. "I'll think about it. Your dad and I will talk about it, okay?"

"K!" he leaned over to me and muttered with a grin "That means yes."

I nodded. Indeed, whenever our parents gave that kind of response, it was almost always a positive answer in the end.

"But Al," I said as we headed to our room, where twin beds on opposite sides were placed, "you shouldn't get your hopes up too soon. You never know if we'll have something planned that day, or if , or if—"

He pulled my curl.

"—_quelque chose sera arriver_—" I glared at him. "_Alfred_!"

He shrugged and sat on his bed. "You were talking too much. Don't worry, Mattie, it'll be fine!"

"_Tu connais je peux tu insulter, et tu ne connais pas_."

"I have no idea what you're saying," he said, grinning.

* * *

"ただいま," I was calling when I came home. My mother comes to me and says "Welcome home, Kiku. Remember to use your English."

"I'm back," I correct myself. "Mother, may I go outside with my friends before or after Christmas?"

"_Can_ I," she corrected me. "Which friends?"

"I don't believe that you know them…"

"I suppose that it's okay," she said to me. I smiled.

"ありがと!"

"English!"

"Thank you."

* * *

"_Maman_!" I called as I entered the house. "I'm back!"

My mother came to the staircase, wearing an apron. "_Salut_, Francis! How was your day?"

"It was fine. _Maman_?"

"Yes?"

"May I please go out with some friends around Christmastime?"

She paused. "I'll think about it. Will you please help me with dinner in the meantime?"

"_Oui, maman_."

* * *

I woke up on the porch swing with a cat nuzzling my hand. I smiled and petted it. It purred and rubbed its head against my arm. Picking it up and gently carrying it off the porch, I went inside and called "Mother?"

She came around the corner and her face lit up. "Hercules! Hi, honey! How was school?"

"It was… okay. Mother? May I please… go out with some friends… around Christmas?"

She pursed her lips. "Well, I'm not sure that's wise. What if you fall asleep in the middle of the street?"

"I think that… someone would catch me. I could warn them in time…"

"Well…" she looked to the side. "I'll think about it, okay?" suddenly her nose wrinkled and she sneezed. "Were you petting a cat?"

* * *

I lied on my stomach on the couch, studying the geometry book. I was finally getting the stuff, and it was getting to be easy for me. I glanced up at Antonio. "Hey, are we free around the time that Feli mentioned?"

"Yes," he replied, checking the calendar. "I think boss will give me a few days off for Christmas."

"Okay, that's good. What're we having for dinner?"

"Clam chowder."


	19. The Check, The Vote, And The Flustered

At lunch the next day, I met with everyone at the table (I noticed that Alfred, Kiku, and Hercules were sitting with us and that Hercules was sleeping). Sitting down, I learned that everyone had gotten either a positive on going out around Christmas or an "I'll think about it", which according to them, usually meant yes.

"And Herc's mom said she'll think about it," added Alfred, patting the sleeping boy on the back affectionately. "He told us that right before he dropped off, which was like two minutes ago."

"Hey, what're you reading, Artie?" asked Gil. Arthur looked up from his book, which had a gray cover.

"The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation – Volume 1: The Pox Party," he replied.

"Is it any good?" asked Toni curiously.

"It's quite good, yes. The themes are complex and deep, and the main character himself is a bright child raised under unusual conditions, and who learns a thing or two of the world outside."

"That sounds perfect for you," commented Francis. Arthur looked up.

"Are you saying that I'm a bright child?"

"No," he said, smirking. "I'm saying that it is a boring book and so it's perfect for a boring person."

They started punching each other. Toni and Gil pulled them apart.

"But anyway," said Ludwig, "we need a more specific plan if we're going to do this. We need to know exactly which day we are going to go out, exactly what time we're all going to meet, exactly _where_ we're going to meet, exactly what time we'll be back out our respective houses, and exactly all of the places we're planning to visit, in a specific order as well."

"I say we do whatever the hell we want," said Gil, throwing an arm around Matt, whose face turned red. Ludwig glared at his brother.

"No! We need an actual plan if we're going to do this!" he snapped. "I simply cannot _stand_ disorganization!"

"We can make the plan now!" I said cheerfully around a mouthful of pasta. "If that's what Ludwig wants!"

His face went pink for some reason and he settled back down. "T-Thank you, Feliciano."

Alfred muttered something to Gil, who snickered.

Arthur took out a piece of paper and a pen. Clicking the pen, he poised it over the paper and looked around. "Alright then; first off, what day should we meet on? Should it be before or after Christmas?"

"Before," said Lovi, drinking down his milk.

No one objected, so Arthur said "Okay then, now what day _specifically_?"

"The 23rd?" suggested Alfred. "I think that's on a Monday this year, and it's just a couple days before Christmas."

Arthur muttered something and said "Any objections?"

No objections arose.

"Motion passed," he said, writing down the date. "December… 23rd. Okay, now what time?"

"If we're going to have dinner," said Matthew quietly, "I think we should meet around six. We'll have time to find a place and order dinner before seven."

Arthur looked at him and nodded. "That sounds fine. Is six good for everyone?"

"I'm sorry…"

Everyone turned to look at Kiku, who gazed back steadily. "Forgive me for the interrupting, but should we not wait for Hercules-_san_?" he gestured to Hercules, who was still sleeping. "He may have an object as to—" he frowned. "He may have an objects as to—object—"

"Objection?" prompted Alfred. Kiku nodded.

"Yes, an _objection_. He may have an _objection_ as to the plans which we are creating."

"Good point," said Arthur, clicking the pen and putting it away. "We should wait for him to wake up."

About ten minutes later, almost everyone had finished their lunch when Hercules woke up. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes. He looked around and said tiredly "Hi. Did I… miss something?"

Francis explained the situation.

"Oh. Sorry… to make everyone wait."

Arthur took out the pen again. "We were saying that six would be a good time. Is that good for you, Hercules?"

He thought about it and nodded. Arthur wrote it down.

"As for where…" said Francis. "What about the square? From there we can reach many places that may spark our interest."

"What do you know, the bloated ego speaks," muttered Arthur. However, everyone agreed to it, and after Alfred told Kiku where the square was, Arthur wrote it down. "I think that we should all be back around nine o'clock or nine-thirty. I suppose some of us may have to leave some time earlier, but that time, I believe, should be the latest."

"We can work out that later!" I said happily. "I'm just glad we all get to go out together!"

The bell rang. Alfred and Kiku volunteered to stay with Hercules until he finished his lunch. I went with Ludwig to geometry. While we walked, I said "Hey, Ludwig?"

"Yes?" he asked.

"Why do you sometimes seem a bit nervous?"

He looked away. "I just… I'm thinking of other things that happen to be on my mind. It's nothing to do with you."

"Oh, okay~! Wait, I didn't say anything about it having to do with me…"

"Oh, look!" he said loudly. "We're almost to class! My, does the time fly!"

I shied away from him. "Don't shout, please! I don't like shouting!"

"S-Sorry."

* * *

**I highly do ****_not_**** recommend reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. It's one of the dullest books I've ever read.**


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